A new study from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital shows that the dietary supplement S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAM-e) can be an effective treatment for adults with major depression who do not respond to traditional antidepressants.
The study was led by George I. Papakostas, M.D., of the Center for Treatment-Resistant Depression at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical Center. During the study at the depression treatment center, significantly more patients treated with SAM-e than those treated with placebos had a clinical response. The remission rates were found to be higher with SAM-e than with the placebo drug.
"With each study we continue to gain a better understanding of SAM-e’s role in treating depression. This new finding, albeit preliminary and in urgent need of replication, suggests significant, clinically meaningful differences in outcome among patients who had SAM-e added to their antidepressant medication treatment compared to those taking a placebo with their medication," said Papakostas.
"These findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy, safety and tolerability of SAM-e as an addictive therapy for patients with major depressive disorders who do not respond to antidepressant treatment alone. Continued research, however, is urgently needed to more definitively further our understanding of the role of SAM-e in the treatment of adults diagnosed with depression. Adjunctive SAM-e therapy is promising, but cannot yet be recommended for widespread clinical use."
To date, at least 40 clinical trials have been conducted on SAM-e directly and in combination with traditional antidepressant medications. Clinical studies have previously evaluated SAM-e’s role in naturally restoring a healthy mood to the most recent research for treating major depressive disorders.
