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Vitamins and minerals are involved in virtually every biologic process, so micronutrient deficiencies have broad effects throughout the body and brain.
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Micronutrient insufficiencies affect most people, even in “well-fed” populations, especially patients with psychiatric disorders, including mood disorders in youth and adults.
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Folic acid, chromium, and perhaps zinc may be effective adjunctive treatments for depression in adults but are not powerful enough to be monotherapies.
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Broad-spectrum
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America
Single-Micronutrient and Broad-Spectrum Micronutrient Approaches for Treating Mood Disorders in Youth and Adults
Section snippets
Key points
Vitamins and minerals in health and disease
The technical term “micronutrients” refers to all vitamins and biologically active minerals required in trace and ultratrace amounts to sustain health. The term is often used more broadly to describe a variably defined group of dietary substances, including other bioactive nutrients required in “micro” amounts for a wide range of biologic processes (Box 1). In contrast, larger dietary quantities are needed of the macronutrients, which include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and the
Treatment of mood disorders with single micronutrients
Kaplan and Shannon47 conducted a review of the evidence linking specific micronutrients to mood symptoms in children and adults. Based on clinical trials, as well as biochemical correlational studies, significant mood effects in humans were identified for a large number of vitamins and minerals (Box 5), and beneficial therapeutic effects have been identified for a small number of single micronutrients.
The study of individual micronutrients for treating psychiatric disorders is an endeavor that
Broad-spectrum micronutrient interventions
Broad-spectrum micronutrient strategies supply a wide range of vitamins and minerals, an approach that is likely to provide more pervasive and significant physiologic changes than supplying just one or a few micronutrients at a time. Sometimes seen as an implicit challenge to the conventional model used in medical pharmacology conceptualizing 1 drug having 1 effect (eg, the standard dose-response curve), a “nutritional pharmacology” approach views a multi-ingredient supplement consisting of a
Summary
The main findings on micronutrient treatments provide some encouraging data (Box 9, Tables 8 and 9). Several single-nutrient interventions show promise as effective augmentation agents for antidepressant treatments, but not as monotherapies. In contrast, broad-spectrum micronutrient interventions appear to have the potential to become a genuine monotherapy for mood disorders whose effects may be comparable to conventional antidepressant and mood-stabilizing agents.
Main findings on
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Julia Rucklidge, Bonnie Kaplan, and Cathy Field for their contributions to this field and also for their comments on an earlier form of this article.
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2023, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North AmericaRationale and design of an international randomized placebo-controlled trial of a 36-ingredient micronutrient supplement for children with ADHD and irritable mood: The Micronutrients for ADHD in Youth (MADDY) study
2019, Contemporary Clinical Trials CommunicationsCitation Excerpt :Literature reviews revealed less than 35 published studies, most using single-nutrients for ADHD [23,24]. These single nutrient studies have yielded modest findings [23,25], likely because the single-nutrient approach is at odds with human physiology and neurobiology. A variety of nutrients serve as cofactors for specific biochemical pathways in neurotransmitter production and function [26–28].
Natural health products, dietary minerals and over-the-counter medications as add-on therapies to antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder: a review
2019, Brain Research BulletinCitation Excerpt :Contrary to expectations – based on the fact that the link between calcium level changes and depression is discussed in textbooks – we did not find any preclinical or clinical investigations on the efficacy of calcium augmentation of standard AD treatment. Even those papers whose title or abstract may suggest that they will discuss the role of calcium administration in the treatment of depression do not provide substantial information on this topic (e.g. Deutschenbaur et al., 2016; Lang et al., 2015; Popper, 2014). Considering the lack of strong evidence on the effect of calcium supplementation on mood, it is surprising that the multi-nutrient supplement given to the participants of the MooDFOOD project (a project aimed at preventing the onset of depression in a population with a high risk of depression (i.e. obese individuals with subsyndromal levels of depression) by administering this product) includes calcium among its ingredients (Roca et al., 2016).
A case report of a novel, integrative approach to Hashimoto's thyroiditis with unexpected results
2018, Advances in Integrative MedicineCitation Excerpt :While the patient did see significant improvement in her symptoms and daily functional capacity as well as a reduction one thyroid antibody marker, this case is limited by the lack of a control case or group. The use of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) has been documented as a treatment for a range of health problems, including stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia [31–33] This case study raises the possibility of similar benefits to be found in the use of micronutrients for Hashimoto’s disease. As a point of interest, the next step would be to develop a case series with patients receiving an individualised dietary and micronutrient intervention or usual care, to ascertain if normalisation of thyroid antibodies as well as improvement patient well-being, can occur in patients with Hashimoto’s disease.
Perinatal nutrition in maternal mental health and child development: Birth of a pregnancy cohort
2016, Early Human DevelopmentCitation Excerpt :A number of factors have been associated with neurodevelopmental disabilities including genetics, neurobiological, and environmental factors such as neurotoxicants and nutrition, however, no definitive cause has been identified. Research is beginning to explore the important role maternal and child nutrition plays in children's neurodevelopment [30]. The APrON study was established to examine the associations between prenatal nutrition, maternal mental health, and child development, with attention to other factors affecting child health, including paternal mental health, social and behavioral factors, and genetic–environmental influences.
Synergistic effects of diet and exercise on hippocampal function in chronically stressed mice
2015, NeuroscienceCitation Excerpt :Although this approach may not identify contributions of any one ingredient, mounting evidence supports the potent neuroprotective effects of CDSs exhibiting some overlap in ingredients or physiological targets (Milgram et al., 2002; Parachikova et al., 2010). Broad-spectrum, antioxidant-rich micronutrient supplementation also shows promise in treatment of mood disorders, while single nutrient supplements generally produce weak results (Rucklidge and Kaplan, 2013; Popper, 2014). For example, pre-partum micronutrient supplementation lessens the risk and severity of postpartum depression (Leung et al., 2013).
Disclosures: Dr C. Popper is an unpaid consultant to Truehope Nutritional Support and to NutraTek Health Innovations.
None of the agents discussed in this article have marketing approval for psychiatric uses by the US Food and Drug Administration.