Depression
From The Nutritional Health Bible by Linda Lazarides (1997). This free database is provided for interest only. Linda's later writings refer to more up-to-date research.
Some causative factors- B vitamin deficiency, especially folate
- Hypoglycaemia
- Selenium deficiency
- Zinc deficiency.
Depressive patients may have disturbances in folic acid metabolism related to vitamin B6, B12, magnesium or zinc deficiency, with improvement in depression on treatment of these deficiencies. Lietha R et al: Neuropsychiatric disorders associated with functional folate deficiency in the presence of elevated serum and erythrocyte folate: A preliminary report. J Nutr Med 4:441-447, 1994.
Serum folate levels were estimated in depressed patients and found to be significantly lower than in normal controls. The lower the folate the more severe the depression. Abou-Saleh MT et al: Serum and red blood cell folate in depression. Acta Psychiatr Scand 80(1):78-82, 1989.
Folate deficiency is common in psychiatric disorders, especially depression, and may predispose to or aggravate psychiatric disturbances. Abou-Saleh MT et al: The biology of folate in depression: implications for nutritional hypotheses of the psychoses. J Psychiatr Res 20(2):91-101, 1986.
Of 11 healthy men given a selenium-rich or selenium-poor experimental diet for 99 days, those with an initially low selenium status experienced relatively depressed moods. Hawkes WC et al: Effects of dietary selenium on mood in healthy men living in a metabolic research unit. Biol Psychiatry 39(2):121-8, 1996.
Promising nutritional researchIn a double-blind trial, adminisration of the amino acid dl-phenylalanine (DLPA) was compared with the antidepressant drug imipramine in 40 depressed patients. Both products were found to be equally effective. Beckmann H et al: dl-phenylalanine versus imipramine: a double-blind controlled study. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr 227(1):49-58, 1979.
75-200 mg per day of the amino acid dl-phenylalanine was (DLPA) administered to depressed patients for 20 days. 12 patients were discharged with a complete or good response and only 4 patients did not respond. The investigators conclude that DLPA may have substantial antidepressant properties. Beckmann H et al: Dl-phenylalanine in depressed patients: an open study. J Neural Transm 41(2-3):123-34, 1977.
The amino acid tyrosine is precursor to noradrenaline, needed for mood balance. Trials using tyrosine supplementation against depression have shown encouraging results. Gelenberg AJ et al: Tyrosine for depression. J Psychiatr Res 17(2):175-80, 1982.
In contraceptive pill users with depression, anxiety and other symptoms, vitamin B6 supplementation restores normal tryptophan metabolism and relieves the related symptoms. Bermond P: Therapy of side effects of oral contraceptive agents with vitamin B6. Acta Vitaminol Enzymol 4(1-2):45-54, 1982.
12 patients with dopamine-dependent depression were treated with the amino acid L-tyrosine. On the first day of treatment a return to normal mood was observed. Mouret J et al: L-tyrosine cures, immediate and long term, dopamine-dependent depressions. Clinical and polygraphic studies (in French). C R Acad Sci III 306(3):9308, 1988.
Compared with placebo, 12 grams of inositol were administered daily to 13 patients with clinical depression resulted in significant improvement. Levine J et al: Double-blind controlled trial of inositol treatment of depression. Am J Psychiatry 152(5):792-4, 1995.
33% of 123 patients with acute clinical depression or schizophrenia were found to be folate deficient. After treatment with methylfolate or placebo for 6 months in addition to their standard psychiatric drugs, those given methylfolate had experienced a significantly improved clinical and social recovery. Procter A: Enhancement of recovery from psychiatric illness by methylfolate. Br J Psychiatry 159:271-2, 1991.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies testing the use of the herb St John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) against mild to moderately severe depression found that Hypericum extracts were significantly superior to placebo and equally as effective as standard antidepressant drugs. Side effects occurred in 19.8% of Hypericum patients, as compared with 52.8% of patients on standard antidepressants. Linde K et al: St John's wort for depression - an overview and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials. BMJ 313(7052):253-8, 1996.
The usefulness of s-adenosyl methionine as an antidepressant has been confirmed in several clinical trials. Compared with standard antidepressant medications it has few side effects. Vahora SA et al: S-adenosylmethionine in the treatment of depression. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 12(2):139-41, 1988.