Broad-spectrum micronutrient formulas for the treatment of psychiatric symptoms: a systematic review

Abstract

Ingesting minerals and vitamins in combination makes physiological sense, and research on the use of broad-spectrum formulations for psychiatric symptoms is increasing rapidly. This review covers formulas consisting of at least four vitamins and/or minerals and includes four experimental designs: randomized controlled trials, open-label trials, case–control studies and case studies with within-subject crossovers. Nevertheless, there is evidence for the efficacy of micronutrients in the treatment of stress and antisocial behaviors as well as depressed mood in nonclinical and elderly populations. Many reports studied mood changes in healthy populations, making it difficult to generalize to clinical samples. There is also preliminary support for the treatment of autism with micronutrients. However, despite positive preliminary findings, there are less data available to support efficacy of micronutrient formulas in treating bipolar disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse/dependence and no clinical trials have been done with clinically depressed or anxious patient samples, psychosis or eating disorders.

Keywords::

• ADHD
• autism
• depression
• micronutrients
• minerals
• psychiatric
• psychosis
• review
• treatment
• vitamins

Acknowledgements

JJ Rucklidge thanks the University of Canterbury for ongoing research support. BJ Kaplan thanks the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for ongoing support. The authors thank Ellen Sole for help with compiling the tables.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

JJ Rucklidge has received a private donation from Marie Lockie and research support from the Vic Davis Memorial Trust. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.