HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: Low cholesterol significantly associated with increased depression

The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Thursday 15 October 2015

Low cholesterol significantly associated with increased depression

2001 Aug 5;103(1):93-6

Study title and author:

Biochemical markers of anxiety and depression.

Rafter D.

Hartstown Medical Centre, 2 Hazelwood Avenue, Hartstown, Clonsilla, 15, Dublin, Ireland.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11472794

The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression is a multiple item questionnaire used to provide an indication of depression. A score of 0-7 is considered to be normal. Scores of 20 or higher indicate moderate, severe, or very severe depression.

This study investigated the association between cholesterol levels and depression. The research was carried out on a normal population in a primary care setting using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.

The study found that those with low cholesterol scored significantly higher on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, thereby low cholesterol was significantly associated with higher rates of depression.