Letter to the editor: Long-Term Tea Consumption and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Elderly.

Abstract

To the editor, the publication on “Associations of Long-Term Tea Consumption with Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Community-Living Elderly” is very interesting (1). Chan et al. concluded that “There was evidence suggesting that long-term tea consumption was associated with reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms among community-living elderly (1).” In fact, tea drinking is a rooted behavior among Chinese Asian population. The health usefulness of tea is approved. Neuroprotective system due to tea drinking is believed to due to the active ingredients including to flavonoids (2). In a recent report, the green tea was found to have more neuroprotective activity than red and black tea (3). It is no doubt that the long-term tea consumption can result in neuroprotective effect as reported by Chan et al (1). However, as noted by Chan, further investigation is needed. The main concern for the present report is confounding effect that is not controllable. The studied elderly might have other foods, beverages or activities that can help protect against depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, tea contain caffeine, an extremely high dose drinking might result in problem, induction of anxiety instead of prevention of anxiety (4).