Weight loss and depressive symptoms are critical head and neck cancer outcomes, yet their relation over the illness course is unclear.

Associations between self-reported depressive symptoms and objective weight loss across the year after head and neck cancer diagnosis were examined using growth curve modeling techniques (n = 564).

A reciprocal covariation pattern emerged-changes in depressive symptoms over time were associated with same-month changes in weight loss (t [1148] = 2.05; p = .041), and changes in weight loss were associated with same-month changes in depressive symptoms (t [556] = 2.43; p = .015). To the extent that depressive symptoms increased, patients lost incrementally more weight than was lost due to the passage of time and vice versa. Results also suggested that pain and eating-related quality of life might explain the reciprocal association between depressive symptoms and weight loss.

In head and neck cancer, a transactional interplay between depressive symptoms and weight loss unfolds over time. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2016.