A Potential New Approach of Using Nutrition to Treat Depression

For patients suffering from depression, antidepressant medication is often a daily necessity. Depression is incredibly common. Eighteen million Americans currently suffer from depression and one in eight Americans will suffer from depression in their lifetime. But for many of these patients the antidepressants can gradually stop working, leaving many people feeling hopeless.

Doctors say the antidepressant medication can work again and are now recommending a medical food to give the medication a much needed boost. According to psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Thomas Gazda, it’s as if in some patients, the brain is malnourished. Deplin® is a medical food containing l-methylfolate, the active form of the vitamin, folate. It is the only folate that can be taken up by the brain where it helps balance the chemical messengers that affect mood (serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine).