7 Vitamins and Supplements That May Help Depression Symptoms

Note: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not approve supplements for safety or effectiveness. Talk to a healthcare professional about whether a supplement is the right fit for your individual health, and about any potential drug interactions or safety concerns.

Antidepressant medications and psychotherapy are mainstays when it comes to treating depression. But complementary approaches like certain vitamins and supplements may also boost your mood if taken alongside first-line treatments.

“Supplements can be useful for some people with depression. The more tools we have in our tool kits, the better off any one of us is,” says the integrative psychiatrist Marni Chanoff, MD, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School in Boston and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and the founder and CEO of Joy in Health, a practice that offers integrative psychotherapy and psychiatry.

Here’s a look at seven vitamins and supplements that research shows may improve symptoms of depression, and why they might help.

Some vitamins and supplements have more evidence of their effectiveness for depression than others. Here are seven vitamins and supplements that research shows may improve symptoms of depression.

1. Omega-3 Fatty Acids

The study primarily included women in their mid-thirties with mild to moderate depression, which closely reflects the most commonly diagnosed demographic, says Kathryn Miner, DO, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and educator specializing in lifestyle and culinary medicine in Kansas City, Missouri.

On the other hand, the most significant improvements were seen in those taking antidepressants, Dr. Miner adds. “Improvements were also seen over the course of two years, whether or not an omega-3 supplement was used," she explains. This suggests that the antidepressants may be the driving force behind the improvements, so more controlled studies in larger populations are needed, Miner says.

• Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is found in plant oils such as flaxseed, soybean, and canola oils
• Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is found mostly in seafood.
• Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is found mostly in seafood

“For people who can’t eat seafood because it is an allergen for them, or who won’t because of dietary, ethical, or other personal choice, omega-3 supplementation may be needed either in the form of plant foods high in omega-3s (walnuts, chia seeds, flax) or in pill form,” says Miner.

2. Vitamin D

This is a high-quality analysis that includes a large number of people, says Jeffrey Ditzell, DO, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City. But the results showed only a small benefit, and the findings weren’t consistent across all studies, which makes it harder to say for sure how helpful vitamin D really is.

Overall, more research is needed to support the use of vitamin D supplements for depression, specifically on populations with a clinical diagnosis of depression, says Dr. Ditzell. “Rigorous research through double-blind randomized controlled trials and embracing diverse populations and clinical settings is necessary to establish efficacy,” he explains.

If you know you have a vitamin D deficiency, a supplement may be helpful for improving mood symptoms, in addition to enhancing your overall health, adds Dr. Chanoff, but be sure to speak with your doctor before starting any new supplements.

3. SAMe

If you decide to try SAMe, there are several things to keep in mind, particularly how important it is to talk to your doctor before taking the supplement.

“I want to emphasize that this supplement should be taken under the care of a mental health professional or a primary care doctor with mental health expertise,” says Chanoff. “There are potential side effects, interactions, and contraindications, and some people don’t tolerate it well.”

The supplement can lose its potency when exposed to excess air and moisture for prolonged periods of time, according to Miner, so she recommends following all the packaging and storage instructions listed on your specific product.

4. L-Methylfolate

But the studies cited in the article have major limitations, says Ditzell. They included just 223 people in total, and relied only on short, self-reported mood surveys. Without more detailed data or stronger study designs, it’s hard to know how reliable the results are, he says.

On the whole, research findings have been mixed, but the available evidence generally supports therapeutic potential for using folate to treat depression, Ditzell adds.

“More comprehensive research is needed, particularly within subgroup populations, in order to advance our understanding of the benefits and risks of folic acid and related compounds, such as LMF, for depression treatment,” he explains.

In addition to being sold as a supplement, a prescription medical food product called Deplin contains L-methylfolate. It’s approved by the FDA to relieve symptoms of major depressive disorder when used as a complement to standard treatments (like medication), notes Ditzell.

“Before I would recommend [a supplement], I would work with people to get more folic acid from food,” says Chanoff. Leafy greens, lentils, beans, and other fortified foods contain folate, she adds.

That may do the trick for some, but if you’re still not responding well to medication, it may be worth getting a blood test to check your folate levels and confirm a deficiency that could benefit from supplementation, says Ditzell.

5. St. John’s Wort

But research comparing St. John’s wort to antidepressants is limited and inconsistent, meaning we can’t make clear assumptions about its clinical application, says Ryan Sultan, MD, a double board certified psychiatrist and the founder and medical director of Integrative Psych, a psychiatry practice in New York City. “The supplement could potentially be used in place of [certain antidepressants], but we need more information. Not to mention, supplements are not [fully] regulated by the FDA, so it's hard to know what patients are actually taking.”

The research needs more analysis, says Dr. Sultan. “While it provides insight into the potential benefits of St. John’s wort in the context of depression, the article alone is not suitable as standalone evidence for clinical decisions or policy development,” he explains.

• Birth control pills
• Heart medicines
• Drugs that prevent transplanted organ rejection
• Some HIV medicines
• Some cancer drugs
• Certain statins and blood thinners

In other words, St. John’s wort may benefit some people with mild to moderate depression who aren’t already taking prescription antidepressants, but you should always talk to your doctor before trying any new supplements, especially if you are taking any other medications.

6. Probiotics

“Probiotics can help promote gut health, and we now have a much better understanding of how connected the gut is to the brain," says Chanoff.

“While this study is well-designed, it should be considered as a starting point for further research on probiotics and depression,” says Sultan. Additional research should involve larger sample sizes across several locations with longer follow-up periods to make more definitive conclusions, he explains.

Broadly speaking, “While the probiotic appears to help with depressive symptoms, we still don’t know how it works biologically — whether bacterial shifts caused mood changes or mood changes influenced the gut,” Sultan says. “More research is needed to establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship.”

7. Magnesium

“Magnesium can be used to help people with insomnia and anxiety, and there are some studies looking at magnesium for depression,” says Chanoff.

While this review does suggest that magnesium produces moderate benefits, more research is needed to substantiate and standardize these claims, says Sultan.

“New research should include more participants from diverse settings. It should also determine how different doses of magnesium affect depression outcomes and compare various means of administration — oral, intravenous, et cetera,” he says. “Future research should standardize intervention protocols and utilize consistent outcome measures.”

Though vitamins and supplements may be helpful for some people with depression, under a doctor’s supervision and alongside standard treatments for depression, there are some important things to consider before you try them.

First, it’s important to ensure you’re getting enough nutrients from food sources before taking a pill. “I’m someone who always looks to food first,” says Chanoff. “Nutrients in their natural form are ideal, and food-based nutrients are less complicated to integrate into treatment.”

Supplements may be useful for some people who can’t or aren’t ready or able to make dietary changes, Chanoff notes.

Your doctor will help you sort out what’s safe and what could be harmful for you.

In addition, the FDA doesn’t regulate the safety or effectiveness of vitamins and supplements, so you may not know exactly what you’re getting when you purchase a product.

That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re buying from brands that are well vetted and to scrutinize ingredients on labels carefully, says Chanoff. To choose a quality supplement, check the label for USP, NSF, or ConsumerLabs Approved. This means the product has undergone third-party testing for quality and purity.

• Some vitamins and supplements, like omega-3s, vitamin D, and L-methylfolate, may relieve depression symptoms when taken alongside standard depression treatments, especially for people with deficiencies or treatment-resistant symptoms.
• St. John’s wort may relieve mild to moderate depression as well as some antidepressants, though evidence is mixed and more research is needed. Small studies suggest that S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) may also relieve symptoms of depression. Both of these supplements can have dangerous interactions with some common medications, so be sure to speak to your doctor before trying them, or any other supplement.
• Supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA the same way that prescription drugs are. If your doctor gives you the okay to try a supplement, choose trusted brands with third-party testing.