Creatine supplementation → Cognitive performance
Higher Creatine supplementation moves Cognitive performance only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
McMorris 2008 found that 20 g a day of creatine for one week, after a placebo week, improved random-number, recall, and long-term memory tasks versus continued placebo in 32 older adults, except backward number recall. Toniolo 2018 then found that 6 g a day as an adjunct in 18 people with bipolar depression moved only verbal fluency.
Randomized trial · Contested · N=32
Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Read the caveats.
Mechanism
Authors treat creatine as a short-term brain-energy buffer. McMorris tests that in older adults on lab tasks. Toniolo tests it inside a bipolar-depression drug trial. McMorris, Mielcarz, Harris, Swain and Howard (2008) split 32 older adults. Fifteen took 5 g of placebo four times a day for a week, then 5 g of creatine four times a day for a week. Seventeen took placebo both weeks. Tasks were random-number generation, forward and backward number and spatial recall, and long-term memory. The abstract says creatine moved every task except backward number recall. It does not publish the scores. Toniolo, Fernandes, Silva, Dias and Lafer (2018) sat Wisconsin Card Sorting, Digit Span, Stroop, Rey-Osterrieth, and FAS verbal fluency at baseline and week 6 in 18 people already in a 6 g creatine-versus-placebo adjunct trial for bipolar depression. Only verbal fluency changed between groups. The other tests did not.
Caveats
Researchers assigned people to a powder or a control, so this is a trial stamp. Both files are small. More papers of the same design do not settle the claim. McMorris is one week, thirty-two people, and the record here has no effect sizes. The first week is placebo in the creatine arm. That is not a two-week parallel trial. Toniolo is eighteen people, bipolar depression, already on mood drugs. Verbal fluency moved. Working memory, Stroop, and figure copy did not. That is not a general cognition claim and not a 1RM claim. McMorris does not identify lean mass or a lift. This page is not a strength claim. This is a journal entry, not medical advice and not a reason to load creatine for a test.
Effect
qualitative. McMorris 2008: 20 g/d 1 wk vs placebo, N=32 elderly. Tasks except backward number recall moved. No scores in abstract. Toniolo 2018: 6 g/d adjunct, N=18 bipolar depression; verbal fluency only.
Nodes
Named confounders
Cite this page
What Causes What. “Creatine supplementation → Cognitive performance.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-creatine-cognition (atlas updated 2026-09-02).
Papers
- Creatine supplementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals.
T McMorris, G Mielcarz, RC Harris, JP Swain, A Howard · 2008 · Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition
- Cognitive effects of creatine monohydrate adjunctive therapy in patients with bipolar depression: Results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
RA Toniolo, FBF Fernandes, M Silva, RDS Dias, B Lafer · 2018 · Journal of affective disorders