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New Studies Reveal Inverse Relationship between Thiamine Nutritional Status and Depressive Symptoms among Older Chinese Adults

Dec 26, 2012

Thiamine plays an important role in mental health. Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among the elderly. However, few epidemiological studies have investigated the relationship between thiamine nutritional status and depression in the general population. Recently, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the inverse relationship between thiamine nutritional status and depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults through the first large-scale, community-based study of its kind.

Researchers led by KE Zunji, MD, PhD, and LIN Xu, MD, PhD, professors of the Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences measured free thiamine and its phosphate esters [thiamine monophosphate (TMP) and thiamine diphosphate (TDP)] in erythrocytes by HPLC among 1587 Chinese men and women aged 50–70 years living in Beijing and Shanghai. Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

The results demonstrated that 28.2% of these Chinese adults aged 50–70 years had subclinical thiamine deficiency (TD), and erythrocyte TDP concentrations did not differ across age groups. The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 11.3%. More importantly, their data showed that lower concentrations of erythrocyte thiamine biomarkers were monotonically associated with higher odds of having depressive symptoms independent of other potential risk factors for depression.

These results demonstrated that poorer thiamine nutritional status and higher odds of depressive symptoms were associated among older Chinese adults. This finding should be further investigated in prospective or interventional studies.

The studies were performed by Dr. ZHANG Geng, who was a Ph.D. candidate at Dr. LIN’s laboratory for Human Nutrition and Related Diseases, and DING Hanqing, who is a research associate at Dr. KE’s Laboratory for Nutritional Neurosciences.

The article entitled "Thiamine Nutritional Status and Depressive Symptoms Are Inversely Associated among Older Chinese Adults” was published online in the Journal of Nutrition on Nov. 21, 2012.

CONTACT:
KE Zunji, Principal Investigator
Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai 200031, China.
Tel: 86-21-54920926
Fax: 86-21-54920291
Email:
zjke@sibs.ac.cn

LIN Xu, Principal Investigator
Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai 200031, China.
Tel: 86-21-54920249
Fax: 86-21-54920291
Email: xlin@sibs.ac.cn

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