No clear potentiation of antidepressant medication effects by folic acid+vitamin B12 in a large community sample

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).

This prospective study examines the effects of folic acid+vitamin B12 supplementation and antidepressant medication in a community-based study of older adults with depressive symptoms.

Why It Was Studied

Observational studies link low folate levels to depressive symptoms and to poor antidepressant medication response.

Evidence supports a role for folate in potentiating the effect of antidepressant medications.

Who Took Part

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

Participants were screened for psychological distress using the Kessler Distress 10-Scale (K-10; >15 eligible) and the main outcome measure was change in depressive symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) at six weeks, six, 12 and 24 months.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) could be set against what happens without it.

A time span of two years appears in the methods.

Self reported use of antidepressant medication over two years was recorded.

What Was Measured

Observational studies link low folate levels to depressive symptoms and to poor antidepressant medication response.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antidepressive Agents, Depressive Disorder, Drug Synergism, Folic Acid, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Surveys and Questionnaires and Vitamin B 12.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) over two years.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2011 (Journal of affective disorders), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) compound page, all human trials.