Supplements
Creatine & Brain Bioenergetics
Creatine is the most direct nutraceutical embodiment of the bioenergetic hypothesis of mood disorders, with confirmed brain target engagement. Yet its clinical evidence remains thin, biased toward positive, and below the threshold of demonstrated meaningful benefit.
6 min readInositol
Inositol is a safe, mechanistically distinctive second-messenger-precursor strategy with its best — though modest and pilot-grade — signals in panic disorder, OCD, and PMDD. The controlled evidence for depression and anxiety is essentially null on meta-analysis.
4 min readMagnesium
Magnesium is an essential mineral and endogenous NMDA-receptor modulator, commonly under-replete in modern diets and in depressed populations. It is a safe, inexpensive, low-risk adjunct worth assessing and correcting — though its eye-catching meta-analytic effect rests on small, mostly unblinded trials.
6 min readN-Acetylcysteine (NAC)
NAC is a safe, cheap, mechanistically broad glutathione precursor with its firmest evidence as a schizophrenia adjunct and in trichotillomania/excoriation. It is also a near-perfect case study in early-positive-versus-large-equivocal psychiatric trials.
10 min readNutraceutical Psychiatry: A Critical Synthesis
A capstone overview of dietary supplements and nutraceuticals for depression, weighing where these mostly-modest tools legitimately belong in practice. The honest position is neither enthusiasm nor dismissal but disciplined discrimination.
8 min readOmega-3 Fatty Acids (EPA/DHA)
Of the nutraceuticals marketed for mood, omega-3s have the strongest and most replicated evidence base. EPA-predominant formulations are a sound, low-risk adjunct in major depression — with a real but small effect, inflated in the published record by publication bias.
8 min readOne-Carbon Metabolism: Folate, B12 & SAMe
Folate, vitamin B12, and SAMe are three handholds on a single biochemical loop — the one-carbon (methylation) cycle. Screen for and correct deficiency as standard care; deploy L-methylfolate and SAMe as honest, modest adjuncts.
7 min readProbiotics & Psychobiotics
Specific probiotic strains show a moderate, fairly consistent adjunctive benefit for depressive symptoms in clinically depressed adults. Effects are strain-specific, so the choice of product matters more than the category — and the evidence base is promising but low-quality.
7 min readSaffron (Crocus sativus)
Saffron is among the best-evidenced botanical antidepressants — large versus placebo and non-inferior to SSRIs in mild-to-moderate depression — but its eye-catching effect sizes are tempered by trial concentration and rampant product adulteration.
7 min readVitamin D
Vitamin D is less a vitamin than a secosteroid hormone, and the cleanest example in this series of a supplement that treats a deficiency rather than a disease. Its standout virtue is a validated status biomarker — measure 25(OH)D, then treat.
3 min readZinc
Zinc is an essential trace element and allosteric NMDA-receptor inhibitor, with serum levels consistently lower in depression. Its most reliable role is adjunctive — added to antidepressants in partial responders — and worth assessing and correcting where deficiency exists.