Coffee helps reduce women's risk of depression: study

US researchers studied the health and caffeine consumption of more than 50,700 women over a decade.

THE RISK OF DEPRESSION among women reduces with increased caffeine consumption, according to new research.

Researchers from Harvard’s Public Health and Medical schools and Columbia University studied the health of 50,739 women in the US from 1996 to 2006. The women provided details of their coffee consumption via questionnaire.

The researchers say that of the 2,607 cases of depression discovered among the study participants, most were among women who drank no coffee or low levels of coffee.

Those who drank four cups of coffee or more a day had a 20 per cent lower risk of depression.

The study Coffee, Caffeine, and Risk of Depression Among Women also says that decaffeinated coffee “was not associated with depression risk”.

The study has been published in the Archives of International Medicine and the researchers say that although their findings indicate that increased caffeinated coffee consumption reduces the risk of depression, further research is required.

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