BVitage – Improving the treatment of depression with vitamins

Everyone experiences sad feelings or gets "the blues" once in a while - this is a normal part of life. However, persisting sad or negative feelings that make it hard to function each day may signal depression. Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and affects 5-15% of adults over the age of 65 years. Depressions can cause real suffering - both for the affected person and for family members and other loved ones.

A number of treatments for depression have proven success. However, up to 40% of people with depression fail to recover after a course of treatment. This leads to increased long term illness, suffering, greater use of health services, and increased cost to the person with depression, his or her family and the community and in some heartbreaking cases death.

In order to address the group of people with depression that do not respond to a course of treatment the B-Vitage study aims to test if treatment with vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid reduces the severity of depressive symptoms. The study is currently recruiting participants aged over 50 years old, who are currently experiencing a depressive episode.

The study is a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of antidepressant drug -citalopram plus vitamin B12, B6, folic acid or citalopram plus placebo for the treatment of depression in later life. It is anticipated that the results of this trial will clarify whether the systematic use of B-vitamins and folic acid improves the response of older adults to standard antidepressant treatment. It is hoped that the results of this research will have implications for clinical practice and health policy development.

If you wish to volunteer or require more information contact us at wacha@uwa.edu.au or 9224 2855.