This amount of coffee a day is tied to a lower risk of depression and anxiety: study

Study finds coffee can help boost mental health Dan Riskin reports on a study that suggests drinking two to three cups of coffee a day lowers the risk of anxiety and depression.

Coffee lovers may need to start counting their cups. According to a recent study, the number of coffee cups an individual consumes reveals their risk of developing mental health disorders like depression or anxiety.

The study, published in Psychiatry Research last month, found that people who consumed two to three cups of coffee daily had a lower risk of depression and anxiety.

Meanwhile, people who drank more than six cups daily were found to have a higher risk of depression and anxiety.

People who drank one to two cups of coffee daily had a lower risk of developing depression and anxiety, but not at the same levels as those who consumed two to three cups a day, the study showed.

Researchers said caffeine, a key component of coffee, is believed to be the factor that influences mental health.

The study involved 152,821 people who responded to online mental health questionnaires as part of the U.K. Biobank data set—a data pool that contains data of more than half a million adults from the general population in the U.K.

The data on coffee consumption was obtained from online questionnaires completed between 2006 and 2010, while mental disorders data came from various sources, the study said.

The results showed that 81 per cent of participants consumed coffee, and among this figure, 41 per cent drank two to three cups daily, 28 per cent had one cup, and the remainder drank more than three.

The study’s authors wanted to find out if association with depression and anxiety was also dependent on coffee variations like instant, ground, decaffeinated and coffee additives like milk, sugar sweeteners and artificial sweeteners. The study’s results were consistent regardless of these customizations.

Findings shared that consuming two to three cups of ground coffee daily was linked to a reduced risk of depression and anxiety compared to not drinking coffee at all.

Drinking two to three cups of instant coffee daily was found to be linked with a reduced risk of depression, but not anxiety, and consuming one to three cups of unsweetened coffee daily also reduced the risk of depression and anxiety.

"Our findings support the recommendation that moderate coffee consumption could be part of a healthy lifestyle to prevent and manage depression and anxiety in the general population," the study concluded.

Researchers note that the coffee consumption was self-reported and done at one period of time and coffee consumption habits can fluctuate impacting results.

They also note that the study participants were asked about mutiple coffee types but classified into one type of coffee, when in reality, individuals may consume different types of coffee throughout the day.