Page 51 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

Nutritional Treatments in Psychiatry | 51

well they responded to treatment. The patients who responded
fully to treatment had higher concentrations of vitamin B12 in
their blood at both the start and the end of the study than those
for whom treatment was less effective. Results confirmed the
conclusions of a similar study on elderly patients (Hintikka
2003). These observations suggest that B12 can be a helpful
complement to any treatment regimen for depression.

Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine, is another critical element of the
methylation cycle. One of its many tasks is to convert
tryptophan to serotonin and to assist in the making of
norepinephrine and melatonin. A lack of B6 or a metabolic
failure to process it correctly can cause nervousness, irritability,
depression, difficulty concentrating, and short-term memory
loss.
B6 has been found in a multitude of studies to be twice as
effective as placebo in improving symptoms of premenstrual
syndrome when taken in doses of 50-100 mg per day. Higher
doses were not found to increase effectiveness (Wyatt 1999).
Pyridoxine may also be helpful in autism and related disorders,
many studies suggest. It’s been found that when 100 mg of B6 is
administered daily for two weeks, then twice a day after that,
children with pervasive developmental disorder see an 11.2-
point increase in verbal IQ in 4 weeks (Kuriyama 2002).

SAM-e

SAM-e (S-adenosyl methionine), though not among the B
vitamins, is also a critical part of the methylation cycle. As a
result, supplementation with this nutrient has been found
helpful for depression when taken alone or as an adjunct to
medication. A more recent study found that on a dose of 800 mg
twice daily, twice as many participants taking SAM-e along with
medication improved compared to controls. Additionally, 26% of