Abstract
Growing evidence has implicated nutritional impairments in depressive disorder. However, nutritional data in Japanese patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is scarce. Here we present our preliminary results from our survey on MDD patients and healthy controls. We found that overweight and dyslipidemia were more frequent in MDD patients compared with controls. Low level of serum folate (< 4.0 ng/mL) was more common in patients than in controls. Plasma tryptophan concentration was decreased in MDD patients, which was consolidated by our meta - analysis on previous studies. Against our expectation, we obtained no significant difference in blood levels of n - 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) , ferritin (marker for stored iron) , or zinc between the two groups.
Interestingly, green tea consumption was less frequent in the patients than in the controls. These results indicate the importance of nutritional approach to depressive disorder.
