There is a progressive increase in people suffering from depression and an accompanying growth of prescription drugs to treat the disorder. In the smartphone health app Apple A Day RX, S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe) is indicated as a possible treatment for some forms of depression. It goes without saying, that there is still a requirement for the continued development of anti-depression drugs that are better tolerated and have minimal side effects. One promising candidate is S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe), which is a naturally occurring molecule.
SAMe is found throughout the human body, and in high concentrations in the liver, adrenal glands, and pineal gland. SAMe also appears to be uniformly distributed in the brain, where it acts as the major donor of methyl groups required in the synthesis of neuronal messengers and membranes.
A 2010 complementary medicine research paper published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that SAMe, at a dose of 800 mg/twice daily, can be an effective, well-tolerated, and safe adjunctive treatment strategy for SRI nonresponders with major depressive disorder.
Possible mechanisms of actions of SAMe include:
- influencing the turnover of dopamine and serotonin
- crossing the blood brain barrier making it efficacious
- increasing monoamine synthesis
- effecting brain neurotrophic activity, inflammatory cytokines, cell membrane fluidity, and bioenergetics
Further large scale clinical trials are required to determine it efficacy of SAMe in the treatment of major depressive disorders. The possibility arises that SAMe could be an important Integrative Medicine resource for treating depression, it can be strategically used along with Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM) therapies such as Acupuncture, CBT, Kinesiology, Homeopathy and Lifeline Technique to name but a few.
