Serum zinc level in depressed patients during zinc supplementation of imipramine treatment.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Some clinical investigations point to alterations of the zinc level in blood as a potential marker of depression.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 25 volunteers taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

A placebo-controlled, double blind study of zinc supplementation to imipramine therapy was conducted on sixty patients fulfilling the DSM-IV criteria for major depression (18-55 years old, 40 females, 20 males).

Moreover, a group of 25 healthy volunteers was recruited (16 females, 9 males).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The volunteers were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the volunteers nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

Blood samples were drawn for the assay of serum zinc once from the control subjects and four times (before, and then 2, 6 and 12 weeks after the beginning of treatment) from the depressed subjects.

What Was Measured

Some clinical investigations point to alterations of the zinc level in blood as a potential marker of depression.

The subject headings attached to it are Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic, Major Depressive Disorder, Drug Resistance, Imipramine and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 25 volunteers.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 2 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2010 (Journal of affective disorders), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.