Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
Volume 206, Issue 4, Pages 324-331Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.114.148361
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Funding
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [HL46959]
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [MH091448]
- William F. Milton Fund of Harvard University
- NIH [K08 AG029813]
- Cognis
- BASF
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Background Homocysteine-lowering nutrients may have preventive/ameliorative roles in depression. Aims To test whether long-term B-vitamin/folate supplementation reduces depression risk. Method Participants were 4331 women (mean age 63.6 years), without prior depression, from the Women's Antioxidant and Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study - a randomised controlled trial of cardiovascular disease prevention among 5442 women. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a combination of folic acid (2.5 mg/d), vitamin B-6 (50mg/d) and vitamin B-12 (1 mg/d) or a matching placebo. Average treatment duration was 7 years. The outcome was incident depression, defined as self-reported physician/clinician-diagnosed depression or clinically significant depressive symptoms. Results There were 524 incident cases. There was no difference between active v. placebo groups in depression risk (adjusted relative risk 1.02, 95% Cl 0.86-1.21, P=0.81), despite significant homocysteine level reduction. Conclusions Long-term, high-dose, daily supplementation with folic acid and vitamins B-6 and B-12 did not reduce overall depression risk in mid-life and older women.
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