Levels of omega-3 fatty acid in serum phospholipids and depression in patients with lung cancer

Abstract

Previous studies suggested that omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) have therapeutic effects against depression, but there is no evidence in the oncological setting. Our preliminary study reported the association between lower omega-3 FA intake and occurrence of depression in lung cancer patients. To explore the association further, the present study examined whether depression was associated with lower levels of omega-3 FAs in serum phospholipids. A total of 717 subjects in the Lung Cancer Database Project were divided into three groups by two cutoff points of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression subscale (HADS-D). In all, 81 subjects of the nondepression and minor depression groups (HADS-Do5 and 5pHADS-Dp10, respectively) were selected to match with 81 subjects of the major depression group (HADS-D410) for age, gender, clinical stage, and performance status. Fatty acids were assayed by gas chromatography and compared among the three matched groups. There were no differences between the major depression group and nondepression group in any FAs. The minor depression group had higher mean levels of docosahexaenoic acid (mean7s. Major and minor depressions are one of the most common psychiatric problems in clinical oncological settings (Derogatis et al, 1983;Razavi and Stiefel, 1994;McDaniel et al, 1995). Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the omega-3 fatty acids (FAs), is a major component of membrane FAs in brain neural cells and lack of DHA has been shown to alter neural transmission in animal studies (Bruinsma and Taren, 2000;Innis, 2000;Ng and Innis, 2003). Previous studies have shown associations between DHA or its precursor, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, omega-3 FA), and major depression in subjects without cancer (Edwards et al, 1998;Hibbeln, 1998;Peet et al, 1998;Maes et al, 1999). Other studies have shown their possible therapeutic potential with few adverse effects in clinical trials (Nemets et al, 2002;Peet and Horrobin, 2002;Su et al, 2003). In the oncological setting, the use of antidepressants has been limited due to their adverse effects (Akizuki et al, 2002;Fisch, 2004). In our previous pilot study to obtain information for planning interventional research, depression in cancer patients was not associated with either EPA or DHA intakes, but was associated with lower intake of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA: major omega-3 FAs in diet, precursor of EPA and DHA) (Suzuki et al, 2004). To elucidate any such association in detail, the present study was designed to examine our hypothesis that lower levels of omega-3 FAs (EPA, DHA) in serum phospholipids are associated with major and minor depression in lung cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Study design and subjectsThe present study was a three matched group case -control study, based in part on the Lung Cancer Database Project, which was a prospective cohort study for investigation of the pathogenesis of and development of new therapy for lung cancer at the National Cancer Center Hospital East and the National Cancer Center Research Institute East, ...

Serum Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor and Antidepressant-naive Major Depression After Lung Cancer Diagnosis

“…Of the remaining 319 subjects with HADS-D scores of 4 or under, 81 subjects matched for age and sex were enrolled as controls in the non-depression group. Table 1 shows the background characteristics of the two groups, including some data that were reported in our previous study (12). The depression group contained more subjects with breathlessness than the non-depression group.…”

“…The details of the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the present study were described in our previous report (12). In concise, patients newly diagnosed as having primary lung cancer were included, and patients with cognitive impairment, past or current histories of mental disorders, and brain neoplasms or brain metastasis were excluded.…”

“…The present study used secondary samples from our previous study (12) on the Lung Cancer Database project (13). The project was a prospective cohort study to investigate the pathogenesis of and the development of new therapy for lung cancer.…”

“…Subjects were selected according to the method used in our previous study (12), as follows: (i) all eligible subjects were classified into three groups according to the two cut-off points (10 out of 11 and 4 out of 5) for HADS-D; (ii) the number of subjects in the high-score group (.10) was used as the number of cases with major depression; (iii) the same number of controls in the low-score group (,5) was selected from the eligible subjects so that the two groups were matched for age, sex, PS (0 or 1) and clinical stage as assessed by the TNM classification (Ia -IIIa or IIIb -IV). To compare major depression with non-depression, the cases with high HADS-D scores (.10) were enrolled in the 'depression group', and the cases with low scores (,5) were included in the 'non-depression group'.…”

Is there a role forn-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in the regulation of mood and behaviour? A review of the evidence to date from epidemiological studies, clinical studies and intervention trials

“…(1998) (63) C major depression (64) C major depression (65) C major depression (66) C and SC major depression (67) C major depression in ACS patients (68) C major depression in ACS patients (69) C depression in MI patients (70) C postpartum (71) C major depression (72) C major depression (74) NC adolescent depression (75) NC depression in lung cancer patients…”