Vitamin Deficiency Related to Depression

A recently published study examined the relationship between serum levels of a particular vitamin and the presence of depression in adults. It is estimated that clinical depression affects 19 million Americans, and that 5-10 percent of women and 2-5 percent of men will experience at least one major depressive episode during their adult lives.

In this new study, researchers evaluated 530 Japanese adults between the ages of 21 and 67 years of age. The subjects completed a health survey and the researchers evaluated the subjects according to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale to evaluate depressive symptoms. The study participants were also evaluated for serum folic acid and homocysteine levels. Homocysteine is an amino acid that increases with folic acid, vitamin B12 or vitamin B6 deficiencies.

The results showed that 36.1 percent of the men and 36.4 percent of the women in the study had depressive symptoms. The researchers found that in the men, those with the lowest folate levels had an increased risk of developing depression. In fact, the risk of developing depression decreased by nearly 50 percent in the men with the highest folate levels compared to the men with the lowest folate levels. Furthermore, the study showed an association between increased serum homocysteine levels and depressive symptoms in men. The study did not find an association between folate and homocysteine levels and depressive symptoms in women.

The researchers concluded, “Low serum folate may be related to an increased prevalence of depressive symptoms in Japanese men.”

Reference:

Nanri A, Mizoue T, Matsushita Y, Sasaki S, Ohta M, Sato M, Mishima N. Serum folate and homocysteine and depressive symptoms among Japanese men and women. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jan 20. Published Online Ahead of Print.

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