(13-06-11) Dietary intake of n−3 and n−6 fatty acids and the risk of clinical depression in women: a 10-y prospective follow-up st

1. Michel Lucas,
2. Fariba Mirzaei,
3. Eilis J O'Reilly,
4. An Pan,
5. Walter C Willett,
6. Ichiro Kawachi,
7. Karestan Koenen, and
8. Alberto Ascherio
+ Author Affiliations
1. 1From the Departments of Nutrition (ML, FM, EJO, AP, WCW, and AA), Epidemiology (KK, FM, WCW, and AA) and Society, Human Development, and Health (KK and IK), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; and the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (IK, WCW, and AA).
+ Author Notes
? ↵2 The funding sources were not involved in data collection, data analysis, manuscript writing, or publication.
? ↵3 Supported by NIH grant DK58845. AA received a grant from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (Project ID: 5048070?01). ML received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fonds de Recherche en Sant? du Qu?bec (FRSQ).
? ↵4 Address correspondence to A Ascherio, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract
Background: The associations between different sources of dietary n−3 (omega-3) and n−6 (omega-6) fatty acids and the risk of depression have not been prospectively studied.
Objective: The objective was to examine the relation between different n−3 and n−6 types with clinical depression incidence.
Design: We prospectively studied 54,632 US women from the Nurses' Health Study who were 50?77 y of age and free from depressive symptoms at baseline. Information on diet was obtained from validated food-frequency questionnaires. Clinical depression was defined as reporting both physician-diagnosed depression and regular antidepressant medication use.
Results: During 10 y of follow-up (1996?2006), 2823 incident cases of depression were documented. Intake of long-chain n−3 fatty acids from fish was not associated with depression risk [relative risk (RR) for 0.3-g/d increment: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.10], whereas α-linolenic acid (ALA) intake was inversely associated with depression risk (multivariate RR for 0.5-g/d increment: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.71, 0.94). The inverse association between ALA and depression was stronger in women with low linoleic acid (LA) intake (P for interaction = 0.02): a 0.5-g/d increment in ALA was inversely associated with depression in the first, second, and third LA quintiles [RR (95% CI): 0.57 (0.37, 0.87), 0.62 (0.41, 0.93), and 0.68 (0.47, 0.96), respectively] but not in the fourth and fifth quintiles.
Conclusions: The results of this large longitudinal study do not support a protective effect of long-chain n−3 from fish on depression risk. Although these data support the hypothesis that higher ALA and lower LA intakes reduce depression risk, this relation warrants further investigation.

Source: Am J Clin Nutr June 2011 vol. 93 no. 6 1337-1343

News

---

In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.