There has been several experiments done around the world all researching the effect that taking nutritional supplements have on antidepressant medication. University of Melbourne and Harvard are the two leading Universities in these studies (Gardner, 2016). There have been about 40 clinical trails done internationally (Gardner, 2016). The participants were all people taking SSRI’s, SNRI’s, and tricyclic’s as antidepressant medication (Gardner, 2016). These patients were told to take certain nutrient supplements such as Omega 3 fish oils, S-adenosylmethionine, methylfolate, and Vitamin D (Gardner, 2016). The results of all these studies shows that Omega 3 fish oil significantly boost the effects of antidepressant medication (Gardner, 2016). The other supplements also benefit the effects, however, not to the extent that fish oil does (Gardner, 2016). One of the largest strengths of this research is how it was done internationally, including other countries such as Australia, instead of confining the experiments to just inside the US. Further research is going to be done regarding this idea which is extremely important to society because of the large amount of the population that suffers depression. I feel that more should be looked into the specific neurological processes that cause these nutrients to create stronger effects of the existing antidepressant medication. More experiments should be done using different magnetic brain imaging techniques to gain knowledge about what’s happening inside the brain and body.
Reference:
Gardner, J. (2016, April 26). Nutritional Supplements May Boost Effects of Antidepressants. Retrieved from http://neurosciencenews.com/antidepressants-omega-3-psychology-4126/