L-methylfolate in combination with antidepressant drug helps major depressive disorder patients

Feb 10 2011

Data published in the January issue of Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, www.psychiatrymmc.com, suggest when L-methylfolate, a medical food available commercially as Deplin^®, and by prescription, is used for dietary management of depression in combination with an antidepressant drug at the start of depression therapy, it results in significantly more patients experiencing major improvement and more rapid improvement than antidepressant monotherapy alone.

“Administering adjunctive agents such as L-methylfolate early in therapy as opposed to sequential drug use, or delaying a second agent, may represent a paradigm shift in the therapy of major depressive disorder”

Approximately 70 percent of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients have a genetic abnormality that results in an imbalance of L-methylfolate, the only form of folate that crosses the blood-brain barrier to help regulate neurotransmitters associated with depression.

"Administering adjunctive agents such as L-methylfolate early in therapy as opposed to sequential drug use, or delaying a second agent, may represent a paradigm shift in the therapy of major depressive disorder," said study author Lawrence D. Ginsberg, MD, of Red Oak Psychiatry in Houston. "Too often patients fail to respond to initial treatment and months go by before we are able to layer in additional medications. What we have found is that there are clear synergies between antidepressant drugs and L-methylfolate that result in better patient outcomes earlier in therapy."

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic and recurrent disease affecting more than 18 million people in the United States, ranking it along with heart disease, cancer and diabetes among the nation's most common ailments. Up to 50 percent of patients being treated for depression fail to reach remission.