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Depression can increase the risk of physical ailments, according to a new study.

Lead researcher Prof. Gunther Meinlschmidt from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel and the Faculty of Medicine at the Ruhr-University Bochum and his team found that this is especially true for diseases like arthrosis and arthritis.

The latest study involved 14,348 participants from the Swiss Health Survey.

The findings revealed that participants who suffered depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to suffer physical disease. In fact, one in three participants diagnosed with depression also suffer from at least one physical disease. Researchers found that the association was especially strong for degenerative and inflammatory diseases of the joints.

"A better understanding of the association between depressive symptoms and physical diseases in Switzerland is the basis for a better health care provision for people suffering from mental disorders as well as physical diseases," Gunther Meinlschmidt, author of the study, said in a news release.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.