The importance of cholesterol for health, physical and psychological well-being has been recognized for a long time. Changes in serum cholesterol levels may have a direct impact on mental perfomance, mood, behavior, survival and expected lifetime duration.

To examine the association between depression and cholesterol levels and to discuss the possible imlications in clinical practice.

A MEDLINE search was conducted to identify relevant studies and reviews. The results of our own research will be also presented.

Clinical investigations of cholesterolemia in patients with depressive disorders have produced very conflicting results. Recently, low serum cholesterol was proposed as a biological marker for depression, suicide and affective disorders. Depression has increasingly been recognized as an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). On the other side, CHD is related to high serum cholesterol levels. It seems that both low and high serum cholesterol may be associated with a higher risk of the premature deaths as well as with depression.

Our current knowledge on the relation between cholesterolemia and depressive disorders is poor and controversial. The lipoprotein profile, rather than total cholesterol levels, seems to be more important.