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Adolescents with metabolic syndrome displayed lower overall intelligence
Adolescents with metabolic syndrome are more likely to struggle with arithmetic, spelling, attention, mental flexibility, and trend toward lower overall intelligence, according to recent data. Besides their cognitive impairment, this patient population had smaller hippocampal volumes, increased brain cerebrospinal fluid and a decrease in microstructural integrity in major white matter tracts, according to researchers.
These findings come after a recent study published in Neurology, in which Archana Singh-Manoux, PhD, of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and colleagues found that adults who are obese and have metabolic abnormalities experienced faster cognitive decline vs. those with normal weight.
Among those who were metabolically abnormal in the Neurology study, cognitive decline was faster in obese adults (95% CI, –0.55 to –0.42) compared with normal-weight adult (95% CI, –0.5 to –0.34).
In the adolescent study, Po Lai Yau, PhD, of the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues studied 49 adolescents with metabolic syndrome and 62 adolescents without (aged 14 to 20 years). The patients were matched based on age, socioeconomic status, school grade, gender and ethnicity.
“As a result of the childhood obesity epidemic, in 2006, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was already 8.6% among all US children and adolescents,” researchers wrote.
After conducting endocrine, MRI and neuropsychological evaluations, Yau and colleagues found that adolescents with metabolic syndrome displayed significantly lower arithmetic, spelling, attention and mental flexibility, in addition to a lower IQ, the researchers wrote.
“As expected, adolescents with [metabolic syndrome] had significantly larger waist circumference and BMI, higher degree of [insulin resistance], worse lipid profile, and poorer BP control,” they wrote.
Insulin resistance was found to be the most significant predictor of brain volume changes. However, other metabolic syndrome components also contributed to the abnormalities.
Further research is warranted to determine whether the reductions in cognitive performance and structural brain abnormalities can be reversed with weight loss and obesity-related metabolic syndrome components, researchers wrote.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.