Effects of zinc supplementation on efficacy of antidepressant therapy, inflammatory cytokines, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients with major depression.

What Was Tested

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

Zinc is found in abundance in the human brain.

However, clinical trials on the effect of zinc supplementation in depression are limited.

Furthermore, the effect of zinc on plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor-a (BDNF-a) were assessed.

Who Took Part

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

A single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of zinc supplementation was conducted in patients with DSM-IV major depression.

Forty-four patients of both sexes aged 18-55 years were recruited for this study from a university hospital.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

Some participants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

Symptoms were evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) on arrival, weeks 6 and 12.

Plasma levels of IL-6, TNF-α and BDNF-a were measured at baseline and at the end of study.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antidepressive Agents, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Citalopram, Cytokines, Major Depressive Disorder, Dietary Supplements and Fluoxetine.

Author keywords: HDRS, Major depression, SSRI 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.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2014 (Nutritional neuroscience), a journal based in England.

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