Dietary glycemic index and load and the risk of postpartum depression in Japan: the Osaka Maternal and Child Health Study.
BACKGROUND
Given suggestions that postpartum depression may be due to the sudden fall in insulin levels occurring after delivery via a decrease in serotonergic function, this condition might be alleviated by a high-glycemic index (GI) diet, which would stimulate the secretion of insulin and thereby facilitate the transport of tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin, in the brain. We examined the association between dietary GI and glycemic load (GL) and postpartum depression.


METHODS
Subjects were 865 Japanese women. Dietary GI and GL were assessed during pregnancy using a validated, self-administered, comprehensive diet history questionnaire. Postpartum depression was defined as present when the subject had an Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score of > or =9 at 2-9 months postpartum.


RESULTS
A total of 121 women (14.0%) were classified as having postpartum depression. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, no evident dose-response association between dietary GI and postpartum depression was observed (P for trend=0.18). However, compared with dietary GI in the first quartile, dietary GI in the third quartile, but not the fourth quartile, was significantly associated with a decreased risk of postpartum depression (multivariate odds ratio: 0.56, 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.995). There was no evident independent association for dietary GL (P for trend=0.13).


CONCLUSIONS
Dietary data collected during pregnancy rather than postpartum were used.


CONCLUSIONS
This preliminary study failed to substantiate a clear inverse relationship between dietary GI and GL and postpartum depression. Considering the plausibility of the proposed mechanism, however, further investigation using postpartum dietary data is warranted.
Murakami
Kentaro
K
Department of Social and Preventive Epidemiology, School of Public Health, the University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. kenmrkm@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Miyake
Yoshihiro
Y
Sasaki
Satoshi
S
Tanaka
Keiko
K
Yokoyama
Tetsuji
T
Ohya
Yukihiro
Y
Fukushima
Wakaba
W
Kiyohara
Chikako
C
Hirota
Yoshio
Y
D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D015992:Body Mass Index; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000378:metabolism; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D038321:Glycemic Index / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D001786:Blood Glucose; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates