Magnesium supplementation → Depression
Higher Magnesium supplementation decreases Depression.
Tarleton 2017 found that 248 mg a day of elemental magnesium as chloride, versus no treatment, cut PHQ-9 scores by 6.0 points among 112 primary-care adults with mild-to-moderate depression in an open-label crossover (95% CI -7.9 to -4.2). Barragán-Rodríguez 2008 found a similar drop versus imipramine in 23 older adults with diabetes and low serum magnesium.
Randomized trial · Contested · N=112
Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Read the caveats.
Mechanism
Authors treat a magnesium salt as something that might ease a mild depressive episode, perhaps through NMDA or inflammatory paths. Neither file isolates that path, and neither uses a matching placebo. Tarleton, Littenberg, MacLean, Kennedy and Daley (2017) assigned 126 US primary-care adults with a PHQ-9 of 5 to 19 to six weeks of 248 mg elemental magnesium as chloride and six weeks of no treatment, in an open-label blocked crossover. 112 people gave analyzable data. The net PHQ-9 change was -6.0 points (-7.9 to -4.2). GAD-7 sat at -4.5 (-6.6 to -2.4). Adherence by pill count was 83 percent. The authors say the drop showed within two weeks and did not depend on baseline serum magnesium or on being already on an antidepressant. Barragán-Rodríguez, Rodríguez-Morán and Guerrero-Romero (2008) assigned 23 older adults with type 2 diabetes, serum magnesium under 1.8 mg per deciliter, and a new Yasavage and Brink score of 11 or more to 450 mg of elemental magnesium as chloride solution or 50 mg of imipramine for twelve weeks. End scores were 11.4 versus 10.9 (P=0.27). Serum magnesium rose only on the salt.
Caveats
Researchers assigned people to a salt or a control, so this is a trial stamp. Nobody assigned a matching placebo. More papers of the same design do not settle the claim. Tarleton is open-label against no pill. A six-point PHQ-9 drop against nothing includes expectancy, phone-call attention, and regression to the mean. That is why confidence stays contested. Barragán-Rodríguez is twenty-three people, older, diabetic, hypomagnesemic, and the comparator is a tricyclic, not placebo. Both arms fell. Equivalence to 50 mg of imipramine is not a placebo-controlled identification. This page is not the insulin page. It is not a reason to treat a PHQ-9 with a grocery salt. This is a journal entry, not medical advice.
Effect
qualitative. Tarleton 2017 open-label crossover: PHQ-9 net -6.0 (-7.9 to -4.2) vs no treatment, N=112. Barragán-Rodríguez 2008: Yasavage 11.4 vs 10.9 vs imipramine 50 mg, N=23. No placebo in either.
Nodes
Named confounders
Cite this page
What Causes What. “Magnesium supplementation → Depression.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-magnesium-depression (atlas updated 2026-09-02).
Papers
- Role of magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression: A randomized clinical trial.
EK Tarleton, B Littenberg, CD MacLean, AG Kennedy, C Daley · 2017 · PloS one
- Efficacy and safety of oral magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression in the elderly with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, equivalent trial.
L Barragán-Rodríguez, M Rodríguez-Morán, F Guerrero-Romero · 2009 · Magnesium research