Lately I was wandering how would dietary supplements help in treating mental disorders such as depression, anxiety or other affective disorders/mood disorders.
In my opinion, dietary supplements such as amino-acids, magnesium, vitamins B,C,D are helping with iritability, tiredness and anxiety.
I am curious about your opinion on this: a therapy for such disorders would be more succesful if the patient, beneath drugs and therapy, recieves dietary supplements and starts healthy diet also?
I am asking this question because I am a pharmacist and I observe a lot. Therfore, lots of my friends and patients are suffering from mild anxiety and depression symptoms. They are always asking me for advice on this topic and I started recomending magnesium and vitamin B and D. After some time, the feedback I got was really positive. I am wondering how much of this effects are placebo or real science.
"While it's easy to go to the corner drugstore and buy a bottle of supplements, it's hard to know if the pills will actually work. Part of the problem is that the FDA doesn't regulate the manufacture of over-the-counter supplements as it does for prescription medications, so manufacturers don't have to prove that the supplements are effective or tell you what the pills are really made of (despite ingredient lists on labels).
The other part of the problem is that we don't have much evidence on some supplements. That means we may not know the side effects, and there may not be firm data indicating that the supplements reduce depression symptoms. The research is too limited, and the existing studies have produced mixed results."
Full article: https://www.health.harvard.edu/depression/can-a-dietary-supplement-help-ease-your-depression
A really interesting question and especially from your unique position as a pharmacist.
Certainly,, if there is a deficit in a vitamin or two, this may lead to neurological issues. Interestingly research I did for a short story involved looking at B12 deficiency or hypocobalaminemia, and there were some studies suggesting that this is sometimes misdiagnosed as dementia in geriatric patients.
Memory loss
Ataxia
pins and needles
These are all symptoms.
So there is a relationship between neurology and vitamins. However there is only so much of a vitamin the body can use. I think it's called bioaccumulation and this can only go so high. A doctor can diagnose a vitamin deficiency but if the body has enough of the vitamin you can potentially receive too much of the vitamin leading to physical and mental issues and/or just pee out the excess vitamins making it just really expensive urine.
But I would suggest a definite link between neurological function and vitamins. I would certainly suggest a marked placebo effect after having bought over-the-counter vitamins along with a cognitive fallacy like sunk cost or something similar.
An article here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/expert-answers/vitamin-b12-and-depression/faq-20058077