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The effects of multivitamin supplementation on mood and general well-being in healthy young adults. A laboratory and at-home mobile phone assessment
This 2013 study addresses the limitations of the previous research suggesting a link between multivitamin supplementation with improved mood and general well-being. Previously, the studies have often only recruited male participants, the duration of treatment has typically been less than 90 days, and the acute effects have not been differentiated from chronic effects clearly enough. Therefore in this present article, 138 healthy young adults (aged between 20 and 50 years) each took a multivitamin supplement daily for 16 weeks. A mood rating scale called Bond-Lader VAS was used to assess subjective feelings. There were also several other measures of chronic mood that were administered at baseline, and at the 8- and 16- week mark. In addition, Pipingas et al. examined the changes in Bond-Lader and Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) in response to a multitasking framework (MTF). Some of the participants were also tested on their mood states at home using their mobile phones. The results showed no significant treatment effects for any of the chronic laboratory mood measures. Furthermore, the male participants in the multivitamin group appeared to experience increased levels of stress as time passed. This finding may be explained by the large percentage of the males in the multivitamin group being students. However, the at-home mobile-phone assessments taken post-dose revealed significantly reduced stress, physical fatigue, and anxiety in the multivitamin group, compared with the placebo group across several time points. There is still further research required to absolutely differentiate between the acute and chronic effects of multivitamins. [NPID: supplements, supplementation, vitamins, multivitamins, mood, well-being, mental health, chronic mood, acute mood]
Year: 2013
