Association of HSV2 infection and depression in adults: a cross-sectional study of NHANES from 2005–2016

Depression is a major mental system disorder, and previous studies have found an association between herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) infection and depression. However, recently researches report that depression can be divided into two categories, cognitive symptoms and somatic symptoms, but the relationship between the subtypes of depression is still unknown. We obtained NHANES data from cycles 2005–2016, and a total of 1124 depressed cases and 4253 matched controls were selected achieving a 1:4 matching ratio. Logistic regression was used to explore the association of HSV-2 infection with depression status and severity. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression was employed to assess associations between HSV-2 infection and specific cognitive/somatic symptoms of depression. HSV2 infection was positively associated with depression status (OR=1.33, 1.11∼1.59) and severity (OR=1.24, 1.05∼1.45), but these associations were only observed in female, not in male. Furtherly, result of Zero-inflated negative binomial regression suggested that HSV2 infection increased total score of somatic symptoms (RR=1.15, 1.16∼1.25) rather than cognitive symptoms in female. Moreover, HSV2 infection was related to increasing somatic symptoms, including sleeping difficulties, fatigue and appetite problems, but not any cognitive symptoms. HSV-2 infection is positively associated with depression status only in females, but not in males. HSV-2 infection appears to be primarily related to somatic symptoms rather than cognitive symptoms in the female population.