RESEARCH ARTICLE
Vitamin B12 Supplementation in Treating Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Ehsan Ullah Syed2, Mohammad Wasay1, *, Safia Awan1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 44
Last Page: 48
Publisher ID: TONEUJ-7-44
DOI: 10.2174/1874205X01307010044
Article History:
Received Date: 28/6/2013Revision Received Date: 6/9/2013
Acceptance Date: 8/9/2013
Electronic publication date: 15/11/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background/Objective:
Recent literature has identified links between vitamin B12 deficiency and depression.We compared the clinical response of SSRI-monotherapy with that of B12-augmentation in a sample of depressed patients with low normal B12 levels who responded inadequately to the first trial with the SSRIs.
Methods:
Patients with depression and low normal B12 levels were randomized to a control arm (antidepressant only) or treatment arm (antidepressants and injectable vitamin B12 supplementation).
Results:
A total of 199 depressed patients were screened. Out of 73 patients with low normal B12 levels 34 (47%) were randomized to the treatment group while 39 (53%) were randomized to the control arm. At three months follow up 100% of the treatment group showed at least a 20% reduction in HAM-D score, while only 69% in the control arm showed at least a 20% reduction in HAM-D score (p<0.001). The findings remained significant after adjusting for baseline HAM-D score (p=0.001).
Conclusion:
Vitamin B12 supplementation with antidepressants significantly improved depressive symptoms in our cohort.
