jennifleur...
I worked in the field of mental health for 25+ years, and, with
few exceptions, I don't recall any problem with taking vitamins
along with typical antidepressants. In fact, many psychiatrists
prescribe vitamin supplements along with antidepressants.
The one exception is the category of antidepressants called
tricyclic antidepressants. Many vitamins can improve the
effectiveness of these medications, as noted on this page
from Vitacost, on tricyclics:
"Supportive interaction?Taking these supplements may support
or otherwise help your medication work better.
L-tryptophan*
Niacinamide
SAMe
Vitamin B-Complex
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B5
Vitamin B6
An asterisk (*) next to an item in the summary indicates that
the interaction is supported only by weak, fragmentary, and/or
contradictory scientific evidence."
http://www.vitacost.com/science/hn/Drug/Tricyclic_Antidepressants.htm
From the same page, tricyclics include:
"Adapin®, Amitriptyline, Amoxapine, Asendin®, Clomipramine,
Desipramine, Doxepin, Elavil®, Imipramine, Janimine®,
Ludiomil®, Maprotiline, Norpramin®, Nortriptyline,
Pamelor®, Pertofrane®, Protriptyline, Sinequan®,
Surmontil®, Tofranil®, Trimipramine Maleate, Vivactil®
Triavil®, Etrafon®"
Vitamin C, however, as well as certain foods, can inhibit
the absorption of tricyclics, as noted on this page from
Holistic Online:
"Many foods, especially legumes, meat, fish, and foods high
in Vitamin C, reduce absorption of the drugs."
http://www.holistic-online.com/Herbal-Med/hol_herb_med_reac.htm
Another class of antidepressants, known as MAOI's
(Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors) also require dietary
limitations, but if you are prescribed these, your
doctor would have warned you.
See this "short list" on Dr. Bob's site:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010814/msgs/75408.html
A good overview of antidepressants is available on this
page from AllAboutDepression:
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/med_01.html
Another excellent resource is AntidepressantFacts:
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/
On that site, they note that, in the event that you have
a negative reaction to an (SSRI/SNRI) AntiDepressant, you
should avoid synthetic vitamins due to the additional
chemical additives they contain. This is a very unique
situation, but the advice on the page regarding obtaining
your vitamins from natural and organic foods is not bad
advice for anyone who is serious about good nutrition:
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/reaction.htm
In fact, many alternative practitioners assert that by
obtaining an adequate supply of vitamins from healthy foods
and sunlight (vitamin D), it might be possible to overcome
depression without the use of antidepressants. While this
remains to be proven, it certainly can't hurt.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog
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http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify
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Additional information may be found from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches outlined below.
Searches done, via Google:
"side effects" OR interactions vitamins anti-depressants
://www.google.com/search?q=%22side+effects%22+OR+interactions+vitamins+anti-depressants
-tricyclic "side effects" OR interactions vitamins anti-depressants
://www.google.com/search?q=-tricyclic+%22side+effects%22+OR+interactions+vitamins+anti-depressants
tricyclic "vitamin C"
://www.google.com/search?q=tricyclic+%22vitamin+C%22
MAOIs "food restrictions"
://www.google.com/search?q=MAOIs+%22food+restrictions%22 |
