Departments of Nutrition and Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jun;93(6):1337-43. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.111.011817. Epub 2011 Apr 6.
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.
The objective was to examine the relation between different n-3 and n-6 types with clinical depression incidence.
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.
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.
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.
不同来源的膳食 n-3（ω-3）和 n-6（ω-6）脂肪酸与抑郁症风险之间的关联尚未得到前瞻性研究。
本研究旨在检验不同 n-3 和 n-6 类型与临床抑郁症发病率之间的关系。
我们前瞻性地研究了 54632 名美国女性，年龄在 50-77 岁之间，基线时无抑郁症状。饮食信息来自经过验证的食物频率问卷。临床抑郁症的定义为报告医生诊断的抑郁症和定期使用抗抑郁药物。
在 10 年的随访期间（1996-2006 年），共记录了 2823 例抑郁症发病病例。鱼类长链 n-3 脂肪酸的摄入量与抑郁症风险无关[相对风险（RR）每增加 0.3 克/天：0.99；95%置信区间（CI）：0.88，1.10]，而 α-亚麻酸（ALA）的摄入量与抑郁症风险呈负相关（多变量 RR 每增加 0.5 克/天：0.82；95% CI：0.71，0.94）。ALA 与抑郁症之间的负相关在低亚油酸（LA）摄入的女性中更强（交互作用 P 值=0.02）：ALA 每增加 0.5 克/天，与 LA 摄入量处于前、二、三五分位的抑郁症呈负相关[RR（95%CI）：0.57（0.37，0.87）、0.62（0.41，0.93）和 0.68（0.47，0.96）]，但在第四和五分位没有。
这项大型纵向研究的结果不支持长链 n-3 鱼类对抑郁症风险有保护作用。虽然这些数据支持了较高的 ALA 和较低的 LA 摄入量可以降低抑郁症风险的假说，但这一关系需要进一步研究。
