Rapid recovery from major depression using magnesium treatment
Introduction
Major depression, one of the affective disorders, is a mood disorder characterized by a sense of inadequacy, despondency, decreased activity, pessimism, anhedonia and sadness where these symptoms severely disrupt and adversely affect the person’s life, sometimes to such an extent that suicide is attempted or results. Irritability, insomnia, lethargy, agitation and anxiety often accompany depression. About 10% of the American population is affected by depression at any given moment. The World Health Organization showed that unipolar major depression was the leading cause of disability globally in 1990, and suggests that depression and heart disease will be the most common diseases on Earth by 2020 [1], with both of these diseases having strong magnesium deficiency components.
Contemporary approaches to treating unipolar major depression and manic depression (bipolar disorder) utilize a wide variety of drugs that include monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, tricyclic compounds, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and lithium (for bipolar disorder). These drugs need several weeks to become fully functional.
Varley [2] and many others have shown concern that some antidepressant drugs promote suicide rather than prevent it, particularly in children and adolescents, wherein adverse mood-related effects, including suicide attempts is 4% in active drug versus 2% in placebo-treated patients. This wide-spread concern has resulted in “Black Box” warnings by the United States Food and Drug Administration and outright declarations of contraindications for the United Kingdom for most antidepressants. This led Varley to ask, “What options now?”
In answer to Varley’s question, magnesium should again become the treatment of choice due to its: (1) wide role in brain biochemistry, (2) safety, (3) long history in treating depression and other mental health issues. Depression appears to be a magnesium deficiency disorder especially in major and suicidal depression, but not necessarily in simple “melancholy” or depression caused by other factors such as underlying disease (particularly hepatitis C), hormonal imbalance (particularly hypothyroidism and low testosterone), low cholesterol, Wilson’s Disease, food allergy (particularly gluten intolerance), and adverse reaction to medications.
The benefit of magnesium to treat agitated depression was first published in 1921 by Weston [3]. Magnesium sulfate (10% elemental magnesium) was injected in doses of one to two CCs of a 25% or 50% solution resulting in nearly all of his fifty patients relaxing and sleeping from 4 to 6 h.
Magnesium is recognized in homeopathic medicine for the treatment of depression. For example, magnesium chloride (Magnesia Muriatica) has been used for many decades to relieve various emotional problems including anxiety, apathy, aversions, despair, depression, discontent, headaches, insecurity, irritability, over sensitiveness, restlessness, sulkiness, talkativeness and uncertainty.
Wacker and Parisi [4] reported in 1968 that magnesium deficiency could cause numerous neuromuscular symptoms including hyperexcitability, depression, behavior disturbances, tetany, headaches, generalized tonic-clonic as well as focal seizures, ataxia, vertigo, muscular weakness, tremors, irritability, and psychotic behavior, each of which were reversible by magnesium repletion.
According to Durlach and Bac [5], the mental health pattern induced through simple magnesium deficiency is always neurotic and never psychotic, for example: generalized anxiety, panic attack disorders, and depression. Other psychiatric symptoms from magnesium deficiency consisted of hyperemotionality, asthenia, headache, insomnia, dizziness, nervous fits, lipothymias (repeated fainting), and sensations of a “lump in the throat” and of “blocked breathing”, all of which can be effectively treated with magnesium. Although a neurosis pattern due to magnesium deficiency is frequently observed and simply cured through oral supplementation, neuroses are preeminently conditioning factors for stress.
Cernak et al. [6] showed that chronic stress decreases both free and total plasma ionized magnesium and simultaneously increased oxidative stress in humans. These findings support the need for magnesium supplementation for people living in conditions of chronic stress. However, about 70% of United States and the West have diets containing less than the recommended 400 mg of magnesium per day and up to 20% have diets with less than one-half the recommended intake. Increased stress builds up further worsening magnesium deficiency, with health issues such as depression and cardiovascular disease resulting.
Magnesium deficiency symptoms are non-specific due to its necessity in over 325 enzymes. With most of these enzymes being brain-related, the possibility that magnesium deficiency is involved in a variety of neurosis can be safely assumed.
Opportunity arose to test the hypothesis that magnesium would be helpful in subjects with major depressive disorders. After explaining the possible risks and benefits, and obtaining informed consent, the subjects proceeded to treat their depression with magnesium.
Section snippets
Methods and procedures
A non-drinking, 59-year old hypomanic-depressive male, having had a long history of mild depression treatable with antidepressants, suddenly became extremely anxious, insomniac, tetanic and suicidally depressed after a year of extreme personal, business and noise stress and poor dietary habits (fast food). He was not responsive to treatment with a number of antidepressants and lithium carbonate. After reviewing the report of Durlach concerning magnesium and depression [5], he was treated with
Results
The 59-year old man experienced life-saving benefit from magnesium. The first night after starting magnesium, sleep was restored essentially to normal. Within the following 4 days, depression was greatly reduced for 4–6 h after each magnesium dosage. Anxiety steadily disappeared. Tetany and headaches rapidly disappeared. On occasion, 2:00AM doses were also required to maintain a feeling of wellness. Over the following months, normalcy was maintained only by frequent magnesium ingestion. In this
Discussion
We have shown efficacy, as have others, in treating depression and some related mental disorders with magnesium. We suggest that magnesium treatment will be found effective in future clinical trials, at least to an extent equivalent to antidepressant drugs, and perhaps more effective.
The occurrence of depression 100 years ago was rare, occurring primarily in the elderly. Only 1% of Americans born before 1905 developed depression before they were 75 years old, while 6% of Americans born in 1955
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