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Tryptophan intake is related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in Japan: baseline data from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study

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Abstract

Objective

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid wholly derived from diet. While the majority of tryptophan is degraded through the kynurenine pathway into neuroactive metabolites like quinolinic acid and kynurenic acid, a small proportion of ingested tryptophan is metabolized into the neurotransmitter serotonin. The current cross-sectional study in Japan examined the association between tryptophan intake and depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

Methods

Study subjects were 1744 pregnant women. Dietary intake during the preceding month was assessed using a self-administered diet history questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were defined as a score ≥ 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Adjustment was made for age, gestation, region of residence, number of children, family structure, history of depression, family history of depression, smoking, secondhand smoke exposure at home and at work, employment, household income, education, body mass index, and intake of saturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid plus docosahexaenoic acid, calcium, vitamin D, and isoflavones.

Results

The prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy was 19.2%. After adjustment for confounding factors, higher tryptophan intake was independently inversely associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy: the adjusted prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) for depressive symptoms during pregnancy in the first, second, third, and fourth quartiles of tryptophan intake were 1 (reference), 0.99 (0.76−1.28), 0.94 (0.71−1.25), and 0.64 (0.44−0.93), respectively (p for trend = 0.04).

Conclusions

Higher estimated tryptophan intake was cross-sectionally independently associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in Japanese women.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 19590606JP, 20791654JP, 21590673JP, 22592355JP, 22119507JP, 24390158JP, 25463275JP, 25670305JP, 17K12011JP, 17H04135JP, and 21H03199, and by Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants for Research on Allergic Disease and Immunology and Health Research on Children, Youth and Families from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan, by Meiji Co. Ltd., and by the Food Science Institute Foundation (Ryoushoku-kenkyukai). The authors would like to acknowledge the Kyushu Branch of the Japan Allergy Foundation, the Fukuoka Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Okinawa Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Miyazaki Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Oita Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Kumamoto Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Nagasaki Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Kagoshima Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Saga Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the Fukuoka Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Okinawa Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Fukuoka City Government, and the Fukuoka City Medical Association for their valuable support.

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Correspondence to Yoshihiro Miyake.

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Yoshihiro Miyake and Keiko Tanaka were financially supported by Meiji Co. Ltd. The other authors have no conflict of interest.

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Miyake, Y., Tanaka, K., Okubo, H. et al. Tryptophan intake is related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy in Japan: baseline data from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study. Eur J Nutr 61, 4215–4222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-02969-x

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