Coffee drinking tied to lower risk of suicide

[dkf]

Drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by about 50 percent, according to a new study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study was published online July 2 in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.

“Unlike previous investigations, we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages, and we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any putative protective effect of coffee,” said lead researcher Michel Lucas, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.

The authors reviewed data from three large U.S. studies and found that the risk of suicide for adults who drank two to four cups of caffeinated coffee per day was about half that of those who drank decaffeinated coffee or very little or no coffee.

Caffeine not only stimulates the central nervous system but may act as a mild antidepressant by boosting production of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline. This could explain the lower risk of depression among coffee drinkers that had been found in past epidemiological studies, the researchers reported.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/07/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-risk-of-suicide-by-50/

[orleans]

1. i gotta stop drinking so much coffee n/t

[quinnox]

2. huh, that is pretty interesting

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I'm a heavy coke drinker, so I get plenty of caffeine that way.

[HiPointDem]

3. doesn't even make sense. do meth users have lower rates of depression & suicide? it would

seem to follow.

[Fumesucker]

4. Probably before they run out meth yeah

When you get to the point you have to do meth to feel "normal" then not having it is pretty devastating. Caffeine is the same thing turned down from 11 to about a 3 or 4.

Think about the number of people who seem semi conscious before they've had their first cup of coffee.

[HiPointDem]

5. but you never hear research about how methheads have low rates of depression. probably

because they don't. maybe they actually have higher rates which they adjust with meth.

ditto for caffeine.

[Fumesucker]

6. I've never heard of research either way

To do a more accurate study you'd have to evaluate people before they started on whatever drug and then see if their attitude changed.

If you can take people who are more likely to be depressed and make them less so with caffeine is that a bad thing?

[HiPointDem]

7. not a bad thing. just, the research seems to start from the wrong premises.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. I've been saying that for years.

I've had serious problems with depression for years and coffee helps it. I drink a lot of it, about a pound a week.