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Background/objectives: Decades of research have investigated the association between body mass index (BMI) and depression. Although it has been suggested that obesity lowers the risk of depression in elderly adults, the association of overweight and obesity with depression across age groups remains controversial. Thus, we aimed to investigate how the odds of depression vary between BMI groups in the general population., Subjects/methods: In this study, data were collected from the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 2014 (KNHANES VI; n=7550), and 4932 adults were included in the study sample. We investigated the adjusted association between depression, which was measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), and BMI groups (underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese class I, obese classes II and III)., Results: In all adults, after adjusting for sex, age, income and presence of chronic illnesses, overweight had lower odds of depression than normal weight (OR, 0.811; 95% CI, 0.661-0.995), whereas underweight had higher odds of depression than normal-weight subjects (OR, 1.776; 95% CI, 1.241-2.540). Overweight elderly adults had lower odds of depression than normal-weight elderly adults (OR, 0.522, 95% CI, 0.367-0.743), and obese class I elderly adults also had lower odds of depression than normal-weight elderly adults in both men (OR, 0.482, 95% CI, 0.251-0.924) and women (OR, 0.637, 95% CI, 0.418-0.970). Furthermore, in the normal-weight-to-obese class I elderly adults group, we found that an increase of 1 kg m -2 BMI was significantly associated with a decreased prevalence of depression in both men (OR, 0.898, 95% CI, 0.808-0.997) and women (OR, 0.911, 95% CI, 0.844-0.982)., Conclusions: We found that overweight and mild obesity significantly lowered the risk of depression in elderly adults. These findings suggest that mild increases in BMI beyond the normal range may be a protective factor for depression in elderly Korean adults.

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mutation status of PANK2 among Korean patients with pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) and to document the outcome of pallidal deep brain stimulation (DBS)., Methods: Direct sequencing and deletion/duplication analysis of PANK2 were conducted in 12 patients (11 unrelated) with PKAN, diagnosed on the basis of extrapyramidal dysfunction and the 'eye-of-the-tiger sign' on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Pallidal DBS was conducted in four patients, and the outcomes were measured using the Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS)., Results: A PANK2 mutation was identified in both alleles in all patients. The most prevalent mutation was c.1319G>C (p.R440P) in 8/22 mutated alleles (36%). An intragenic deletion ranging from exons 2 to 4 was found in one allele (1/22, 4.5%) using deletion/duplication analysis. The outcome of pallidal DBS was favorable in two patients with atypical PKAN and moderate severity of dystonia. However, two patients with typical PKAN and relatively severe symptoms showed variable responses., Conclusions: The c.1319G>C (p.R440P) mutation appears to be a founder genotype among Korean patients with PKAN. Furthermore, this study provides additional data for the recent international effort to evaluate the efficacy of pallidal DBS in the treatment of patients with PKAN., (© 2011 The Author(s). European Journal of Neurology © 2011 EFNS.)