
- Psychiatric Times Vol 35, Issue 12
- Volume 35
- Issue 12
A Common Antioxidant Shows Promise in Bipolar Depression
Coenzyme Q10-a nutrient that has improved well-being, vitality, and energy in small studies of patients with breast cancer, the elderly, and veterans-was found to treat bipolar depression in a new randomized controlled trial.
RESEARCH UPDATE
The antioxidant coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) was found to be effective for the treatment of bipolar depression.1 The effect size was large (0.87), athough it took eight weeks to separate fully from placebo.
The
Details of the study
Assessments were double-blind and used the Persian version of the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Both groups improved to a similar degree in the first four weeks, but after eight weeks, the CoQ10 group had marked improvement over placebo. Only three patients achieved full remission (all were in the treatment group), and the response rate was significantly higher with CoQ10 than placebo (72% vs 12%).
A limitation of the study was the small sample size: 69 patients were analyzed after 20 dropped out. Although the discontinuations were evenly distributed among the two groups, they were not accounted for in the final data, which may inflate the results.
Mechanisms
CoQ10 occurs naturally in the human body, but levels decline with age, depression, and medical illness. The coenzyme plays a role in several processes that are impaired in bipolar disorder: mitochondrial function, inflammation, and oxidative stress. CoQ10 is also neuroprotective, and prevents neurodegeneration in Alzheimer, Parkinson, and Huntington diseases. It raises brain-derived neurotrophic factor and protects hippocampal cells against injury. Serotonin is another possible avenue for its antidepressant effects.
Risks and benefits
CoQ10 has few risks and caused no adverse effects in the depression studies. Possible adverse effects may include gastrointestinal discomfort, which is improved by spreading the dose throughout the day and taking with food, and insomnia, which improves with morning dosing. In patients with diabetes, CoQ10 improves glycemic control but can also cause low blood sugar.8 CoQ10 may also be of potential medical benefit to cardiac disease, hypertension, cancer, migraines, dementia, Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, and fibromyalgia. The major risk is an interaction with warfarin, whose anticoagulant effects may be impeded by CoQ10.
How to use it
CoQ10 can be started at 200 mg daily and titrated if no response is seen after two months. Dosages seen in studies on depression have been as high as 1200 mg daily without adverse effects, although it is not known whether there is a dose-dependent response. Most studies used regular CoQ10, but absorption can be an issue and some products are formulated to enhance absorption (eg, with polysorbate 80, black pepper extract, Nano, and Q-Gel).
The bottom line
This is the first controlled study of CoQ10 in bipolar depression. What’s missing is replication, an important step given the drop-out rate and small sample size. On the other hand, CoQ10 has a well-established safety record. It lacks the medical risks that accompany most mood stabilizers, and it can prevent some of the medical problems that tend to accompany bipolar disorder. If patients have not recovered with standard therapeutics, it is worth a try.
Dr Aiken is Instructor in Clinical Psychiatry at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Director of the
This article was originally posted on 10/31/18 and has since been updated.
Disclosures:
Dr Aiken does not accept honoraria from pharmaceutical companies but receives royalties from W.W. Norton & Co. for a book he co-authored with James Phelps, MD,
References:
1. Mehrpooya M, Yasrebifar F, Haghighi M, et al.
2. Forester BP, Zuo CS, Ravichandran C, et al.
3. Forester BP, Harper DG, Georgakas J, et al.
4. Sanoobar M, Dehghan P, Khalili M, et al.
5. Golomb BA, Allison M, Koperski S, et al.
6. Johansson P, Dahlström Ã, Dahlström U, Alehagen U.
7. Iwase S, Kawaguchi T, Yotsumoto D, et al.
8. Zhang SY, Yang KL, Zeng LT, et al.
9. Mood Treatment Center. Coenzyme Q10.
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