Thiamine Nutritional Status and Depressive Symptoms Are Inversely Associated among Older Chinese Adults1,2

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Abstract

Thiamine has been hypothesized to play an important role in mental health; however, few studies have investigated the association between thiamine nutritional status and depression in the general population. Concentrations of free thiamine and its phosphate esters [thiamine monophosphate (TMP) and thiamine diphosphate (TDP)] in erythrocytes were measured by HPLC among 1587 Chinese men and women aged 50–70 y. The presence of depressive symptoms was defined as a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale score of ≥16. The median erythrocyte concentration (nmol/L) was 3.73 for free thiamine, 3.74 for TMP, and 169 for TDP. The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 11.3%. Lower concentrations of all 3 erythrocyte thiamine biomarkers were monotonically associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms: the multivariable adjusted ORs comparing the lowest with the highest quartiles were 2.97 (95% CI = 1.87, 4.72; P-trend < 0.001) for free thiamine, 3.46 (95% CI = 1.99, 6.02; P-trend < 0.001) for TMP, and 1.98 (95% CI = 1.22, 3.21; P-trend = 0.002) for TDP. In conclusion, 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.

Abbreviations

CES-D
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale
TD
thiamine deficiency
TDP
thiamine diphosphate
TMP
thiamine monophosphate

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1

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30930081, 31271142, and 81021002), the National Basic Research 973 Program (2010CB912000, 2011CB504002, and 2012CB524900), the Chief Scientist Program of Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIBS2008006), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-R-10), Key Discipline of Shanghai Public Health-Food and Nutritional Sciences (12GWZX0702), and Program of Clinical Research Center, Institute for Nutritional Sciences and Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital (CRC20100010). Dr. Chen is supported by the Intramural Program of the NIH, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

2

Author disclosures: G. Zhang, H. Ding, H. Chen, X. Ye, H. Li, X. Lin, and Z. Ke, no conflicts of interest.