Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids and risk of depressive symptoms in adolescents

Abstract

Associations previously reported between n3 PUFA and depressive symptoms may be due to collinearity with other dietary and lifestyle factors.

Cross-sectional observation of the relationship of depressive symptoms with lifestyles and parents’ status among Japanese junior high school students

“…It was found in the present study that the students with depressive symptoms had a significantly lower amount of total energy than did those without depressive symptoms. This finding is consistent with the findings reported by Murakami et al [31] and Oddy et al [61], both of whom showed that adolescents with depressive symptoms tended to consume lesser amount of energy intake than those without depressive symptoms. In the present study, however, there was no significant difference in any other nutrients between the students with depressive symptoms and those without depressive symptoms.…”

“…Murakami et al [31,32] reported that higher intakes of folate and vitamin B-6 were associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms in early adolescents, and that higher intakes of fish, EPA and DHA were significantly associated with depressive symptoms only in early male adolescents. In contrast, nutritional intakes such as B vitamins and n-3 fatty acids were reported not to be related to depressive symptoms in adolescents in western countries [61]. Further studies will be needed to investigate the association between depressive symptoms and nutritional intake.…”

Psychomotor retardation and vulnerability to interferon alpha induced major depressive disorder: Prospective study of a chronic hepatitis C cohort

“…Other vulnerability markers revealed to be important subsequent to the start of this study, including inflammatory markers, specific genetic polymorphisms and personality assessments (as reviewed in the introduction) would have been valuably recorded and incorporated in the multivariate analysis. Diet may also influence risk of mood disorder (for example through omega 3 fatty acid content), which could also be valuably studied in such a cohort [40]. Medication use for comorbid conditions at baseline, other than antidepressants or methadone, was not consistently recorded or available as many records of this were held in primary care.…”

Low intake of B-vitamins is associated with poor adolescent mental health and behaviour

“…Potential confounding factors tested include maternal age at birth (continuous), maternal education at birth, family income at the 17-year followup, physical activity (participants were asked how many times on average they engaged in physical activity outside of school hours that caused breathlessness or sweating), body mass index (BMI) at 17 years (kg/m 2 continuous), family functioning at 17 years (continuous) measured using the 12-item general functioning scale (GFS) from the McMaster Family Assessment Device (previously validated for reliability and internal consistency, the GFS gives a measure of the overall health or pathology of the family (Byles et al, 1988)), maternal mental health (determined as whether the adolescent's mother had ever been treated for an emotional or mental health problem other than post natal depression), current use of vitamin supplementation (yes/no) (16.3%), current use of psychopharmacological interventions such as antidepressant and/or stimulant medications at age 17 (3.1%), smoking status, alcohol consumption and omega-3 fatty acid intake from food (continuous measures in g/day) (Oddy et al, 2011). Some continuous variables were dichotomised when tabulated.…”