Association between dietary theobromine with depression: a population-based study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible link between dietary theobromine intake and symptoms of depression.

Materials and methods: These results are based on the responses of 3637 people who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2017-2018. Participants' daily theobromine intake was determined using a 24-h food questionnaire from the 2017-2018 cycle. Presence of depression was defined as a score of 5 or above on the Patient Health Questionnaire. Association between theobromine intake and depression was examined using a multivariate logistic regression adjusting for several relevant sociodemographic, lifestyle and health-related factors.

Results: A total of 6903 participants were included in the study. The results of multivariate logistic regression showed a correlation between depressive symptoms and theobromine intake (OR:1.17, 95%CI:1.02-1.34).

Conclusions: Our cross-sectional population based study suggests that increased theobromine intake is associated with increased risk for depression. Nevertheless, more investigations are needed to confirm our findings.