Patients that have low success with common anti-depressants tend to have low blood levels of Folic Acid. The addition of Folic Acid to these patients tends to cause the anti-depressant to work or more commonly causes the patients symptoms of depression to fade.
Folic Acid when combined with pharmaceuticals is shown to reduce the depth and length of depressive states in major depressive disorder far more efficiently than pharmaceuticals alone.
Folic Acid deficiency is associated with diseases like: Neural Tube Defects, Cardiovascular Disease and Depression. While the advent of using pre-natal vitamins has lowered the incidents of Neural Tube Defects, the same cant be said for Depression and Cardiovascular Disease.
Folic Acid is found in leafy green vegetables, beans, legumes, citrus fruit, yeast and liver. With the Standard American Diet being so deficient in leafy green vegetables and nutrient dense foods, It is no wonder we have such a high percentage of the population experiencing Folic Acid deficiency induced diseases.
A common hurdle to eating leafy greens is knowing how to cook them
The current RDA for Folic Acid is around 400mcg (more for pregnancy and lactation). The therapeutic doses of Folic Acid for depression is much higher.
Should you take high levels of Folic acid? Not without a Doctors care and definitly not if you have a history of convulsions or are taking anti-convulsive medications. Knowing how much to dose depends upon symptoms, how much you have in your blood (can be found in a simple blood test) and most importantly the dose will depend on the kind of Folic Acid you are using.
The cost of Folic Acid as a supplement is relatively inexpensive, while the positive effect can be far reaching. If you have Depression or Dysthmia (low grade depression) consult with your Physician (preferably Naturopathic) on what dose and what form of Folic Acid would be to your benefit.
The version of Folic acid that has some of the best absorption and is supported in the research is Thorne Research 5-MTHF (5-Methyltetrahydrofolate) 60 Capsules
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