Friday, January 14, 2011

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Shown to be Associated With Low Omega-3 Fatty Acid Index and Cardiovascular Risk factors

A case-controlled study of 166 adults, 86 were inpatients with major depressive disorder but without cardiovascular disease and the other 80 were age and sex matched healthy controls with various conventional risk factors of cardiovascular disease. These risks included high triglycerides (152 mg/dL vs 100 mg/dL), fasting glucose (96 mg/dL vs 87 mg/dL) greater waist circumference (97 cm vs 87 cm), and higher BMI (26 vs. 24 kg/m(2))) were found to be more prevalent in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), while the omega-3 index (3.9% vs. 5.1%) and levels of individual omega-3 fatty acids were significantly lower in patients with MDD. Additional information showed that having an omega-3 index less than 4% was found to be associated with higher concentrations of the pro-inflammatory cytokine called IL-6.


This study was conducted by Baghai TC, Varallo-Bedarida G, Born C, Häfner S, Schüle C, Eser D, Rupprecht R, Bondy B, von Schacky C.at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

Their conclusion: "Our results support the employment of strategies to reduce the cardiovascular risk in still cardiovascularly healthy MDD patients by targeting conventional risk factors and the Omega-3 Index." These r esults suggest that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids in order to improve the Omega-3 index, in such a population, may be beneficial.

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