Vitamin B-6 and Depression

[UserBob1234]

Hello,
I'm 28, male and a light smoker.  About a year ago I developed severe anxiety and depression after a relatively minor amount of stress in my life.  Feeling that the cause might be medical instead of psychological, I started taking magnesium supplements.  I did not notice any signficant improvement after several weeks, and decided to add a vitamin B-6 supplement as I had read that B-6 helps with magnesium absorption.  I felt completely cured the first day after starting the B-6.  I had been waking up two hours early with severe anxiety every morning for months.  The first morning after starting the B-6 I was able to sleep in, wake up feeling calm and relaxed and felt completely normal.  This improvement lasted a week before the anxiety, depression and sleep disruption returned.

I considered that the benefit of taking B-6 might be all in my head, but I did not experience any improvement after starting the magnesium or other supplements.  Is there a medical explanation as to why the B-6 would instantly cure my problems but only last a week?

Thanks

[Peter Forster]

Interesting question. You don't mention what doses of B6 you were taking.

I have done a medline search for articles that involve controlled trials of Vitamin B6 and cognition or mood. There are a few studies on this topic but none of them found a difference between Vitamin B6 and placebo on mood.

On the other hand, as Jaquta said, there are enough reports of short term mood enhancing effects of B vitamins that it is hard to dismiss the experience as a placebo response.

Peter

[Jaquta]

Perhaps the supplement decreased the deficiency and thus increased mood.  Excess vitamins are usually excreted in the urine.  If your levels had returned to normal one would almost expect your mood to remain stable (if this in fact was the cause).

If you feel you may have deficiencies or some other medical problem you may like to run this past your doctor.  If your tests come back negative you may like to pursue treatment for anxiety and depression.

I know what you mean though regarding feeling better after taking a vitamin b supplement.  I sometimes take berocca  (vit b complex) and usually feel better for a short period (hours).
There are links between b vitamins and mood.  You may like to do a search on that.

Also, if you want other non-expert advice on supplements you could try contacting Paxiled.  He use to hang out on the anxiety community forum and seems to have extensive knowledge about supplements.

Hopefully this forum expert will be better able to answer your question.