Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: People with obesity are at risk of psychological complications such as anxiety and depression. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of prebiotic supplementation in addition to a weight loss program on depression symptoms in an adult population with obesity.

Methods: Interventional study involving 30 patients with obesity consulting the obesity unit of the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis between May and August 2022. Patients were divided into 2 groups matched for age, sex and BMI: diet alone and prebiotics (30g carob/day). All patients were screened for anxiety symptoms using the HAD score (depression dimension). The questionnaire was administered at T0 and one month after the start of the diet (T1).

Results: The mean age was 40.3 ±6.7 ±years with a female predominance (80% of women). There was a significant weight loss in each group (diet only group: -2.5 kg P0.001 and prebiotic group: -2.2 kg, P0.003). However, for the comparison between groups, there was no significant difference (P=0.7). At T0, depression related symptoms were present in 93,3% of the patients in the diet alone group (33.3% doubtful symptoms and 60% certain symptoms) and for the prebiotic group, depression related symptoms were present in 80% of patients (26.7% doubtful and 53.3% certain). At T1, there was a significant improvement in the HAD-depression score for the diet alone group (mean difference=2.5, P< 0,001) and for the prebiotic group (mean difference=3.1, P0.01). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups for the improvement of HAD-depression score between T0 and T1 (P=0.3).

Conclusion: The prevalence of depression symptoms was high in our population with obesity. The improvement of the symptomatology expression was not related to prebiotic consumption. It’s probably related to the weight loss itself.