Zinc and Depression
People who are depressed have lower concentrations of zinc in their peripheral blood compared with nondepressed individuals, a meta-analysis suggests.
"The pathophysiological relationships between zinc status and depression, and the potential benefits of zinc supplementation in depressed patients, warrant further investigation," write Walter Swardfager, PhD, from the Sunnybrook Research Institute, University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
Their findings were published in the December 15 issue ofBiological Psychiatry.
Link to Zinc Deficiency
"A growing body of evidence demonstrates that experimental zinc deficiency can induce depressive-like behavior in animals, which can be effectively reversed by zinc supplementation," the authors write. Furthermore, preliminary clinical trials have suggested that zinc added to antidepressant therapy may produce more rapid or more effective improvement in depressive symptoms.
Many, although not all, studies that have measured zinc concentrations of peripheral blood in depressed and nondepressed individuals during the past several decades have suggested that depression might be associated with lower zinc concentrations in various population samples, the researchers note.
The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine whether the clinical evidence collectively supports lower zinc concentrations in depressed patients compared with nondepressed individuals.
"Although association studies cannot determine the direction of causation, a causal association between zinc status and depression is biologically plausible," the authors write.
The investigators point out limitations of their study. The quality and risk of bias "were uneven among studies included in this meta-analysis," they write.
Limitations notwithstanding, the authors conclude that their results suggest that depression is associated with reduced concentrations of zinc in peripheral blood.
"The findings suggest the need to further investigate potential roles of zinc in the pathophysiology of depression, the potential utility of zinc and related biomarkers in monitoring MDD and its clinical sequelae, and potential benefits of zinc supplementation in MDD patients," they conclude.
Reproduced from Medscape Psychiatry Fran Lowry 2/1/14
