A recent study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to suffer from depression.

The Harvard Medical School team leading the research tracked the health of a group of women across a decade, from 1996 to 2006, and employed questionnaires to record their coffee consumption habits.

Their results suggested that just over 2,600 of the women involved in the study developed depression over the time period, with the majority tending to be non- or low-coffee drinkers, rather than frequent coffee consumers.

It was suggested that women who consumed two to three cups per day, compared to those who drank one cup or less per week, had a 15% decreased risk of developing depression, and that those who drank four or more cups a day cut their risk by 20%.

The researchers claim that caffeine is the key player in these findings, stating that it is known to enhance feelings of wellbeing in drinkers, and that it has a physical effect on brain functions, including the blocking of chemical receptors such as adenosine.

Professor Bertil Fredholm, of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, said that the study -

‘…fits nicely with a lot of the previous work and what we know about caffeine and the brain. It blocks adenosine, which produces a similar effect to increasing dopamine production. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that the dopamine-rich areas of the brain are much more important in depression that previously thought.’

Fredholm went on to say of caffeinated coffee that -

‘…Drunk in moderation, the evidence is strong that it is not one of the things we do that is going to damage your health.”