Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.
What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found.
Data on diet among 3,500 middle-aged civil servants was compared with depression five years later, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported.
The team said the study was the first to look at the UK diet and depression.
They split the participants into two types of diet – those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.
After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets.
Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.
By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.
Processed food
Although the researchers cannot totally rule out the possibility that people with depression may eat a less healthy diet they believe it is unlikely to be the reason for the findings because there was no association with diet and previous diagnosis of depression.
Study author Dr Archana Singh-Manoux pointed out there is a chance the finding could be explained by a lifestyle factor they had not accounted for.
“There was a paper showing a Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of depression but the problem with that is if you live in Britain the likelihood of you eating a Mediterranean diet is not very high.
“So we wanted to look at bit differently at the link between diet and mental health.”
It is not yet clear why some foods may protect against or increase the risk of depression but scientists think there may be a link with inflammation as with conditions such as heart disease.
Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “This study adds to an existing body of solid research that shows the strong links between what we eat and our mental health.
“Major studies like this are crucial because they hold the key to us better understanding mental illness.”
He added people’s diets were becoming increasingly unhealthy.
“The UK population is consuming less nutritious, fresh produce and more saturated fats and sugars.
“We are particularly concerned about those who cannot access fresh produce easily or live in areas where there are a high number of fast food restaurants and takeaways.”
Margaret Edwards, head of strategy at the mental health charity SANE, said: “Physical and mental health are closely related, so we should not be too surprised by these results, but we hope there will be further research which may help us to understand more fully the relationship between diet and mental health.”
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A gene that influences how the brain responds to stress may also play a key role in depression, according to a new study.
Numerous studies have shown that the brain molecule neuropeptide Y (NPY) helps to restore calm after stressful events.
However, a team of University of Michigan-led researchers has found that people whose genes predispose them to produce lower levels of NPY have a more intense negative emotional response to stress and may be more likely to develop a major depressive disorder.
They now hope the research will eventually help with early diagnosis and intervention for depression and other psychiatric illnesses, and could help lead the way toward developing more individualized therapies.
“We’ve identified a biomarker – in this case genetic variation – that is linked with increased risk of major depression,” said the study’s senior author Jon-Kar Zubieta, a professor of psychiatry and radiology and research professor at the Molecular and Behavioral Neurosciences Institute.
“This appears to be another mechanism, independent of previous targets in depression research, such as serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine,” he added.
The study found that people who produce lower amounts of NPY had measurably stronger brain responses to negative stimuli and psychological responses to physical pain.
They were also over-represented in a population diagnosed with a major depressive disorder.
The researchers used three different approaches, each with a varying number of research subjects ranging from 58 to 152, to study the link between NPY gene expression and emotional processing.
First, they classified subject participants into three categories according to low, medium or high NPY expression.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they then observed the brain activity as the subjects viewed different words – some neutral (such as ‘material’) negative (like ‘murderer’), and positive words (like ‘hopeful’).
In response to negative words, subjects in the low NPY group showed strong activation in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved with processing emotion, while subjects with high NPY demonstrated a much smaller response.
In the second trial, researchers looked at how subjects described their emotional state before and after a stress challenge in which saline solution was injected into their jaw muscles, causing moderate pain for about 20 minutes.
Those in the low NPY group were more negative both before and after the pain – meaning they were more emotionally affected while anticipating the pain and while reflecting on their experience immediately afterward.
Finally, the researchers compared the NPY genotypes of subjects with major depressive disorders with control subjects and found that people with low NPY were ‘over-represented’ in the group with depression.
“These are genetic features that can be measured in any person. We hope they can guide us toward assessing an individual’s risk for developing depression and anxiety,” said lead author Brian Mickey, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School.
The findings are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry
Arthritis’ painful condition triggers severe depression among millions of its sufferers, says a new survey.
Three out of five people with arthritis are brought low by chronic pain, with women worst affected, and half of the people in their 20s and 30s report that arthritis-related pain prevents them going out socially and leading a normal life.
The survey by Arthritis Care, a charity, shows the emotional impact of living with long-term pain is being neglected by doctors, reports the Daily Mail.
The survey found 68 percent of 2,263 sufferers feel depressed when their pain is at its worst. Four out of five feel tired and half feel weak and helpless.
More women said when their arthritis pain was bad they felt depressed – two-thirds compared with half of the men – and women were more likely to feel alone or scared.
Women and young people aged 34 and under were most likely to be forced into staying at home rather than having a social life, with up to two-thirds leading reclusive lives.
Three out of four people with arthritis say the pain prevents them sleeping through the night, and one-third say it stops them having an intimate relationship.
Neil Betteridge, chief executive of Arthritis Care, said: “This report starkly highlights the devastating and far-reaching effect arthritis pain has on people’s lives.”