As a confirmed java junkie, I’ve put together a mini treasure trove of research pointing to the possible health benefits of the bean. But a study out this week in Archives of Medicine has me feeling particularly good. It linked caffeinated coffee with a decreased risk of depression.

The researchers used data from the Nurses’ Health Study, which since 1976 has collected all kinds of information on a large group of women, including diet and exercise habits, social interactions, medical conditions, mental-health status and, in this case, caffeine consumption.

They found that women who consumed four or more cups of coffee a day were 20 percent less likely to develop depression compared with those who consumed the least. (There wasn’t enough data on the “very high” consumption group of six or more cups a day, since they made up less than 1 percent of the study population. I guess I’m more of a rarity than I thought.)

And it apparently had to be caffeinated coffee, not just caffeine—the researchers found no connection between depression and other sources of caffeine, including tea, soft drinks, and chocolate.

The study isn’t perfect. It relied on people filling out questionnaires. And since it was an observational study, not a randomized trial, it can’t prove that the coffee prevented depression. But it was a large and long study, and did try to adjust for confounding factors, like the participants’ mental and physical health.

So if I felt good about coffee consumption in the past, I feel even better now. Happy, in fact.

Read more about the other possible health effects of caffeine—some good, some bad—as well as hidden sources of caffeine.

Source
Coffee, Caffeine, and Risk of Depression Among Women [Archives of Medicine]