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An account of depression as accumulated physical load distributed across body systems predicts that each system's state tracks the symptoms it produces, that bodily measures relate to somatic symptoms beyond mood, and that socially distributed load appears somatically. We tested these predictions in a registered analysis of 14722 adults in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), relating limitation in load-bearing tasks, slow bowel transit, body mass index (BMI), an allostatic load index and income to PHQ-9 depressive symptom items. Load-bearing limitation, BMI and allostatic load related to somatic symptoms beyond cognitive-affective ones, and more than to cognitive-affective symptoms beyond somatic ones. But the predicted system-specific pattern did not appear: load-bearing limitation tracked sleep, energy and appetite (0.2946) far more than slow transit did (0.0404). Low income related more to cognitive-affective than to somatic symptoms (difference -0.0996). Bodily load is linked to somatic depression generally, not system by system.

• Published, Reproduced, Reviewed.Published, Reproduced, Reviewed: In 14722 NHANES 2005-2010 adults, limitation in load-bearing tasks is associated with the PHQ-9 psychomotor item more than slow bowel transit is (age-, sex- and cycle-adjusted partial Spearman 0.2038 vs 0.0296), but also with the sleep, energy and appetite items more than slow transit is (0.2946 vs 0.0404; difference -0.2542, 95% CI -0.2762 to -0.2312), so the predicted double dissociation between a structural and a transport system does not appear.
• Published, Reproduced, Reviewed.Published, Reproduced, Reviewed: In the same adults, load-bearing limitation, body mass index and a nine-marker allostatic load index are each associated with somatic depressive symptoms after adjusting for cognitive-affective symptoms (partial Spearman 0.1916, 0.0558, 0.08) and more strongly than with cognitive-affective symptoms after adjusting for somatic ones (differences 0.0711, 0.0399, 0.0646; Holm-adjusted p 0.002, 0.016, 0.002), whereas slow bowel transit shows no such specificity (difference 0.0074, 95% CI -0.0209 to 0.0347).
• Published, Reproduced, Reviewed.Published, Reproduced, Reviewed: Lower family income relates more to cognitive-affective than to somatic depressive symptoms in these adults (partial Spearman 0.1275 vs 0.0279; difference -0.0996, 95% CI -0.1299 to -0.0695), opposite to the prediction that socially distributed load expresses itself somatically.

Whether antidepressants raise suicidal behaviour in adults is disputed: the FDA's pooled trials found no increase past young adulthood, and re-analyses of approval data on newer drugs found more suicide attempts. We tested this in the serious adverse events placebo-controlled trials posted to ClinicalTrials.gov, under a registered plan. This version corrects the first, which counted a participant listed under two of an outcome's terms twice. With the posted tables and the trials' public reports, serious suicidal behaviour affected 43 adults on antidepressants and 17 to 18 on placebo (risk ratio 1.86 to 1.96): nominally significant, but at the least favourable count not after the registered correction for two endpoints. Without the trials the re-analyses also used, the excess is similar but less certain. Pediatric trials showed more serious suicidality on antidepressants, as the FDA found. These data lean toward more suicidal behaviour in adults but cannot establish it.

• Published, Reproduced.Published, Reproduced: Of the 932 interventional studies naming an antidepressant with results posted on ClinicalTrials.gov on 2026-10-13, 393 randomized trials compare an antidepressant with placebo in 413 comparisons with 99,730 participants at risk in their adverse-event tables. In the 306 adult trials that randomized participants from the start (71,643 participants), nausea is more frequent on antidepressants in the 207 comparisons whose non-serious tables list it (57,580 participants; Mantel-Haenszel risk ratio 2.08, 95% CI 1.98 to 2.18), as these drugs' known side effects predict.