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Vitamin B6 Plus Lithium Helps Ease Mania Symptoms in Patients With Bipolar Disorder
Daily vitamin B6 as adjunctive therapy to lithium was associated with the improvement of mood symptoms in hospitalized patients with bipolar disorder experiencing a manic episode, according to a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
“The use of adjunctive therapy for bipolar disorder is increasingly considered to increase the efficacy of standard treatments,” wrote corresponding author Norman Brad Schmidt, PhD, of the Florida State University Department of Psychology, Tallahassee, Florida, and study coauthors. “In this randomized clinical trial, we evaluated the effect of vitamins B1 and B6 in separate treatment arms on mood symptoms, cognitive status, and sleep quality in hospitalized patients with bipolar disorder in manic episodes.”
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The double-blind study randomized 66 adult patients at the Imam Hossein Psychiatric Hospital in Iran to either 100 mg of vitamin B1, 40 mg of vitamin B6, or placebo daily over 8 weeks. Each group consisted of 22 patients.
Compared to placebo, vitamin B6 significantly affected mood improvement at 8 weeks but vitamin B1 did not, according to the study. Sleep status improvement per the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Scale was significant for vitamin B6 compared with placebo but, again, not for vitamin B1 compared with placebo.
“In this study, vitamin B6 as an adjunctive therapy to lithium had statistically significant positive effects on the control of manic episodes in patients with bipolar disorder,” researchers wrote. “Although we could not ascertain the specific mechanism of action in this study, vitamin B6 has regulatory effects on GABA [γ-aminobutyric acid], dopamine, serotonin, and glutamate neuroreceptors, and it has been associated with a decrease in homocysteine serum level.”
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