Nutrient FIGHTS Depression?

It’s bad enough when adults face depression, but it’s heart-wrenching when teens and adolescents are faced with it.

Cases were on the rise before COVID-19 hit, and now this mental health crisis is at an all-time high.

What makes it even more troubling is the fact that antidepressants are often ineffective in this age group.

If you know a young person in this boat, I hope you share this study with them and their parents. It’s about a nutrient that can BOOST the effectiveness of a common antidepressant.

It could even put them into remission.

Antidepressants are notoriously ineffective. But it turns out that taking them along with one of my favorite nutrients can lead to significant improvements in depressive symptoms.

A recent study included 71 adolescents diagnosed with depression who were taking the SSRI Paxil. This class of drugs works by increasing the neurotransmitter, serotonin.

For the study, participants either took Paxil alone (20 mg per day) or Paxil plus an omega-3 fatty acid supplement (2,700 mg per day) for 12 weeks.

Follow-up assessments were conducted every four weeks.

Both groups demonstrated improvements at each follow-up.

However, the group taking Paxil plus omega-3s had a far more significant improvement. In fact, the omega-3 group was much more likely to go into REMISSION.

They also showed more significant improvements in cognitive function and memory.

Now, this was an open-label study, which means each group knew what they were taking, which can potentially produce bias in the results.

However, since other studies have demonstrated that omega-3s alone have a beneficial effect on depression (as well as on memory and cognitive function), I’m inclined to think these results were not entirely due to bias.

Either way, omega-3s are safe and don’t interfere with SSRIs. So, if you or a loved one has been struggling with depression, talk to your doctor about giving omega-3s a try.

P.S. 7 Healthy habits SLASH depression risk by 57% or MORE. (You’ll LOVE #7!)

SOURCE:

Erin Carbone, et al., “He said, she said: Gender differences in the disclosure of positive and negative information,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 110, 2024, 104525,ISSN 0022-1031, doi. org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104525.