Analysis of the association between anxiety, depression and obesity in individuals with metabolic syndrome.

Objective. The aim of this study was to verify the association between anxiety, depression, and obesity in metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients. Methods. It is a retrospective study with 142 volunteers with MetS of both genders and age ≥20 years. Every subject responded to the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS). Data are shown as absolute and relative frequencies for categorical variables and a Pearson's chi-square test was performed to verify the association between anxiety or depression and body mass index (BMI). The value of p≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results. The frequency of anxiety and depression was 18.3% (n=26) and 12% (n=17), respectively. There was no significant association between anxiety or depression and BMI (p=0.481 and 0.079, respectively) in individuals with MetS. Conclusions. Although no association among anxiety, depression and obesity was found, the psychological factors should be added to the MetS treatment contributing to a more effective health care in order to find answers to manage and adhere to the conducts carried out from a more humanized and transdisciplinary perspective. The data also indicate that large sample and case-control methodology are required to obtain a more specific evaluation of this association.

Hypertensive response to stress: the role of histaminergic H1 and H2 receptors in the medial amygdala.

Different brain areas seem to be involved in the cardiovascular responses to stress. The medial amygdala (MeA) has been shown to participate in cardiovascular control, and acute stress activates the MeA to a greater extent than any of the other amygdaloid structures. It has been demonstrated that the brain histaminergic system may be involved in behavioral, autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to stressful situations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the histaminergic receptors H1 and H2 in cardiovascular responses to acute restraint stress. Wistar rats (280-320g) received bilateral injections of cimetidine, mepyramine or saline into the MeA and were submitted to 45min of restraint stress. Mepyramine microinjections at doses of 200, 100 and 50nmol promoted a dose-dependent blockade of the hypertensive response induced by the restraint stress. Cimetidine (200 and 100nmol) promoted a partial blockade of the hypertensive response to stress only at the highest dose administered. Neither drugs altered the typical stress-evoked tachycardiac responses. Furthermore, mepyramine and cimetidine were unable to modify the mean arterial pressure or heart rate of freely moving rats under basal conditions (non-stressed rats). The data suggest that in the MeA the histaminergic H1 receptors appear to be more important than H2 receptors in the hypertensive response to stress. Furthermore, there appears to be no histaminergic tonus in the MeA controlling blood pressure during non-stress conditions.