vitamins and depression

The Connection Between Vitamins and Depression

Mental health professionals have long known of the relationship between low levels of vitamin B-12 and depression, and psychiatrists have long been prescribing supplements such as B-complex capsules (containing B-12 as well as certain other B vitamins like folate and B-6) to those they are treating for depression.

What’s the connection between theses vitamins and depression? Simply that these B vitamins are currently front-runners among several nutrients that seem to be involved in the production and balance of the brain’s mood chemicals.” Low levels of these chemicals (e.g., serotonin) are now considered to be among the main culprits in depression.

 

Depressed persons typically have low levels of B-12 and / or one or more of the other key B vitamins. Symptoms of depression may occur even when vitamin B-12 levels are just slightly lower than normal and the person may not, in fact, be showing any of the clinical symptoms of B-12 deficiency, many people with major depression need more than their normal intake of this vitamin.

 

So, too, with deficiency of another B vitamin, folate. This deficiency is also common among depressed patients, and poor response to anti-depressants is thought to be linked to low levels of folate. While folate deficiency alone can induce depression, when this deficiency combines with the presence of a suspected faulty gene, the double whammy is more likely to tip someone over into mental health. To compensate for this higher levels of folate than normal are needed.

 

In the case of vitamin B-6 preliminary evidence suggests that because B-6 increases serotonin levels in the blood, it may benefit people with depression; however, we still await more clinical trials to confirm the potential benefit.

 

Earlier studies have already indicated that depressed persons put on a therapy regimen that included vitamin B12 and / or folate had significantly improved recover, and the longer they took the vitamin therapy, the better they felt. The combined efficacy of these B vitamins in treating depression warrants more investigation, however. currently there’s looking at how supplementation with B12 and folate may help adults with depression; the study will end this year, so the picture should soon be more clear. The more confirmatory evidence we have, the better.

 

Of course, to some extent, there could very well be an egg-and-chicken conundrum here: While there seems to be a clear link between these B vitamins and depression, what is less clear is whether B deficiency is the cause or the result of depression. Poor nutrition is one cause of vitamin deficiency. But poor nutrition may also be a consequence of depression. People who are depressed may lose interest in eating or make less healthy food choices, which may lead to vitamin deficiency.

(yet another B vitamin, B-2, seems to have a more specific kind of role: it appears to be especially important in those depressed persons who are on one particular type of anti-depressant – a tricyclic anti-depressant. The reason apparently is that vitamin B-2 is depleted by this particular anti-depressant, and therefore needs to be supplemented).