June 8, 2015

expert reaction to caffeine, chronic stress and mood disorders

The ability of caffeine to improve measures of chronic stress, mood, memory and depression has been investigated by a research group who have published their results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team report that the use of caffeine was able to help these measures, either by preventing or reversing the negative behavioural effects.

Dr Sridhar Vasudevan, Lecturer in Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, said:

“In this paper Kaster et al., found that caffeine can reduce depressive symptoms caused by stress. The authors evaluated the effects of caffeine on depression and anxiety in stressed animals using a range of behavioural measures to arrive at this conclusion. Kaster et al. report a very well designed study with interesting results and will generate much interest among the scientific community, as they provide a new and tractable pharmacological target for depression, which can be validated in the clinic.

“Given caffeine has a long history of use and is undeniably safe in moderate doses, this is good news and begs the question as to whether or not our chronically stressed population should self-medicate with copious amounts of coffee. Although an extra cup or two in the morning would not hurt, anything further should be taken with caution. Depression is multifaceted can stem from many causes, not just stress, and translation of such results from animals to humans has often been a stumbling block in the past. With regard to caffeine, it is of course a well-known stimulant that can disrupt sleep. Regular and good quality sleep is incredibly important in the regulation of mood and indeed to general wellbeing. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest sleep disturbances are intrinsically linked with depression and can even predict the onset of depression-like symptoms. Moreover, excess caffeine could be counteractive; sleep disruption is often accompanied by anxiety disorder, which is promoted by caffeine. Given these links, it may not be advisable to ramp up coffee/caffeine intake, at until further medical evidence in humans suggests otherwise, and certainly not close to bedtime.

“Given the dearth of new drugs in psychiatry, these results are valuable indeed.”

‘Caffeine acts through neuronal adenosine A_2A receptors to prevent mood and memory dysfunction triggered by chronic stress’ by Kaster et al. published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Monday 8^th June. 

Declared interests

No interests received