Associations of the Ratios of n-3 to n-6 Dietary Fatty Acids With Longitudinal Changes in Depressive Symptoms Among US Women

Abstract

In the present study, we examined longitudinal changes in self-reported depressive symptoms (and related domains) in relation to baseline intakes of n-3 fatty acids (absolute and relative to n-6 fatty acids). Sex-specific associations were evaluated in a prospective cohort of adults (n = 2,053) from Baltimore, Maryland, who were 30-64 years of age at baseline and were followed for a mean of 4.65 (standard deviation, 0.93) years (2004-2013). Using mean intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids reported on two 24-hour dietary recalls, we estimated the ratios of n-3 to n-6 fatty acids for both highly unsaturated fatty acids (≥20 carbon atoms) (HUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (≥18 carbon atoms) (PUFAs). Outcomes included total and domain-specific scores on the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. Based on mixed-effects regression models, among women, both higher n-3 HUFA:n-6 PUFA and n-3 PUFA:n-6 PUFA ratios were associated with a slower rate of increase in total Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scores over time. Higher n-3 HUFA:n-6 HUFA ratios were associated with slower increases in somatic complaints in men, whereas among women, higher n-3 HUFA:n-6 PUFA and n-3 PUFA:n-6 PUFA ratios were both linked to putative longitudinal improvement in positive affect over time. Among US adults, n-3:n-6 dietary fatty acid ratio was associated with longitudinal changes in depressive symptoms, with a higher ratio linked to a slower increase in depressive symptoms over time, particularly among women.

Dairy product consumption and its association with metabolic disturbance in a prospective study of urban adults

“…This was partly adjusted for using the 2-stage Heckman selection model, as described in previous studies. (91; 92; 93) Moreover, measurement error in dietary exposures can still be sizeable, even though 2 24-hr recalls per wave are an improvement over many large cross-sectional studies. Those errors are probably random across metabolic disturbance groups, leading to attenuation of true associations.…”

“…(90) A probit model was constructed to obtain an inverse mills ratio at the first stage (derived from the predicted probability of being selected, conditional on the covariates in the probit model, mainly baseline age, sex, race, poverty status and education), as was done in earlier studies. (91; 92; 93) This inverse mills ratio was then entered as a covariate in the main models to adjust for sample selectivity. Type I error was set at 0.05.…”

Polyunsaturated fatty acid composition and childhood adversity: Independent correlates of depressive symptom persistence

“…Many ecological and therapeutic studies have demonstrated the importance of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) to risks for 1–5 , and recovery from 6, 7 , depressive disorders. PUFAs are important components of neuronal membranes and particular PUFA deficits adversely affect both the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems 8,9 .…”

“…The majority went on to achieve remission of symptoms in a ten-week trial of DHA and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA). Several that did not exclude individuals with depressive disorders at baseline, and that could therefore be considered studies of prevalence rather than incidence, did find association between omega-3 dietary intake and depressive morbidity during follow-up 5, 18, 19 . Only two prospective studies have employed direct measures of PUFA composition as potential predictors of depressive morbidity.…”

Altered serum fatty acid composition in geriatric depression

“…PUFA imbalancies influence serotonergic and catecholaminergic neurotransmission, hippocampal synaptic activity, and prostaglandin formation (Haag 2003). Moreover, imbalancies in PUFAs seem to be related to neuropsychiatric disease such as bipolar disorder, major depression, schizophrenia, ultra-high risk for psychotic disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as to temperament and impaired emotion processing in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Beydoun et al 2015;German et al 2011;Gow et al 2015;Hosono et al 2015;Liu et al 2015;Mocking et al 2015;Rice et al 2015;Sinn et al 2012;Sumich et al 2013). The potential importance of PUFA for major depression has been demonstrated in a number of observational studies and randomized controlled trials, which point to therapeutic effect sizes comparable with that of antidepressants (Grosso et al 2014b;Martins 2009;Rondanelli et al 2011;Sinn et al 2012).…”