L-methylfolate Improves Depression; More Effective in Overweight Patients with Inflammation
A 2012 study by Geoge I. Papkostas and colleagues found that 15mg/day of the nutritional supplement l-methylfolate calcium (a form of the B vitamin folate that the body can more readily use) improved depression in people who had not responded adequately to treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant. In a follow-up study by Richard C. Shelton and colleagues published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2015, the same researchers further analyzed these data and found that l-methylfolate worked better in patients who were overweight (with body mass indexes (BMIs) of 30 or above) and those who had higher than average levels of inflammation at the beginning of the study. Inflammatory markers linked to greater improvement with l-methylfolate included TNF-alpha, IL-8, high sensitivity CRP, and leptin. In overweight participants, higher than average levels of IL-6 were also linked to more improvement on l-methylfolate.
