Is Caffeine an Antidepressant?

Unquestionably, many people say caffeine puts them in a better mood. “Caffeine produces elevations of feelings of well-being, sometimes euphoria,” agrees Dr. Griffiths at Johns Hopkins. New research by Dr. Lieberman, now at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Massachusetts, shows that modest doses of caf­feine (64 to 256 milligrams daily) boosted mood, as deter­mined by a series of mood-assessment tests, in subjects who were young and old, male and female.

Dr. Lieberman suggests that caffeine has “an antide­pressant-like” action. Backing up his finding, a couple of recent large scale population studies have tied coffee drink­ing to a lower risk of suicide.

“It seems not only possible, but likely, that some of the millions of heavy coffee drinkers are, in fact, using caf­feine—consciously or not—to medicate themselves for depression, our most widespread psychiatric condi­tion.” —Melvin Konner, M.D., Emory University

Note: Some experts also observe that caffeine can cause depression in some persons and that getting off caffeine entirely relieves their depression.

Decidedly, research proves what most people know—that being deprived of your morning cup of coffee can make you irritable. In blind tests, Dr. Andrew Baum, professor of medical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, set out cups of morning coffee with and without caffeine. It was easy to tell who got what even without the secret code. Subjects who unknowingly got the coffee or tea without caffeine were grumpy, lethargic, headachy, and performed poorly on mental tasks. On days they got the coffee with caffeine their mood soared; they were less stressed and did better on mental tests.

Although such dependence on caffeine may be distress­ing, Dr. Baum marveled that you need not constantly increase your caffeine intake to satisfy your cravings and get your morning fix, as you do with most addictive sub­stances. Caffeine is unique, he said, in that a single cup gives your brain the same morning “jump-start” and mood-lift day after day, even if you are a heavy-duty caffeine con­sumer. There is no demand to raise the caffeine ante to satisfy your habit.

That’s the good news. The bad news, of increasing con­cern to some scientists, is that caffeine is addictive; you can become dependent on it, and if you don’t get your regular fix, you feel lousy. Some say that’s the primary reason caf­feine is so popular: Once hooked, you need it to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms of headaches, depression, and fatigue. Some even argue that much of caffeine’s reputed boost of mental performance and mood may not be a real effect, but actually a “relief of withdrawal symptoms” in those already caffeine-addicted. That implies that caffeine primarily or solely improves performance and mood by erasing the need for a caffeine fix.

Hopkins’s Dr. Griffiths says the effect of caffeine goes beyond correcting caffeine withdrawal. For example, British psychologist David M. Warburton, of the University of Read­ing, found that men ages eighteen to thirty who were not suffering caffeine deprivation or withdrawal improved in cognitive functions and mood when given 75 to 150 mil­ligrams of caffeine—between half-a-cup and a cup and a­half-of-coffee. They scored higher on computerized tests of attention, problem solving, and delayed recall. The caffeine also lifted their moods, as measured by standard tests, mak­ing them more “clear-headed, happy, calm and less tense.” Dr. Warburton concludes that caffeine works its magic, boosting absolute performance and mood, and not merely alleviating withdrawal symptoms of habituated users.