2015-04-15 08:28:00
Many Naturopathic Doctors routinely consider additional vitamin B12 supplementation to treat depressive symptoms. This article examined if there was an association between the serum folate and vitamin B12 status and the depressive symptoms in postmenopausal women (1). The study included 95 women and the CES-D (a validated scale) was used to measure their depressive symptoms. The women were categorized into 2 groups and compared based on their vitamin B12 and folic acid levels. The results showed that the folate and vitamin B12 levels did not significantly correlate to frequency of depressive symptoms. Thus, the authors conclude that the supplementation of folic acid and vitamin B12 for postmenopausal women does not seem to be an effective intervention. It is important to note that this study only looked for an association, rather than testing supplemental folic acid or B12. Thus, it is possible that supplemental B12, or optimizing B12 levels in depressive women may be helpful.
References
- Sengul O, et al. The comparison of folate and vitamin B12 levels between depressive and nondepressive postmenopausal women. Turk J Med Sci. 2014;44(4):611-5.