Multivitamins and minerals may boost mood in elderly

A daily multivitamin and mineral supplement may improve depressive symptoms amongst the elderly, suggests a new trial in the journal Clinical Nutrition.

The new prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, recruited 225 hospitalized acutely ill older people and randomly assigned them to receive either normal hospital diet plus multivitamin and mineral supplements or normal hospital diet plus placebo for six weeks.

Depressive symptoms and cognitive function were assessed using the 15-item geriatric depression questionnaire (GDS) and abbreviated mental test questionnaire (AMT), respectively.

Gariballa and Forster report that at the end of the study levels of folate and vitamin B12 in red blood cells and the plasma, respectively, increased significantly in the MVM group but decreased in the placebo group.

Significant differences were also reported for symptoms of depression scores between the groups, with beneficial effects observed for patients in the supplementation group regardless of the initial level of depression of the individual, ranging from no depression to severe depression. No differences in cognitive function scores.