Trial reportJournal of clinical psychopharmacology2017
An Open-Label Pilot Study of Combined Augmentation With Creatine Monohydrate and 5-Hydroxytryptophan for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor- or Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor-Resistant Depression in Adult Women.
Trial report in Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Creatine monohydrate supplementation for older adults and clinical populations.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Review
- Novel Insights into Dietary Bioactive Compounds and Major Depressive Disorders: Evidence from Animal Studies and Future Perspectives.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Review
- The role of brain creatine in behavioral health conditions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Creatine Supplementation in Depression: A Review of Mechanisms, Efficacy, Clinical Outcomes, and Future Directions.Cureus · 2024Review
- Fueling the Firefighter and Tactical Athlete with Creatine: A Narrative Review of a Key Nutrient for Public Safety.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Creatine Supplementation for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Scientific Rationale for a Clinical TrialNutrients · 2021Review
- 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP): Natural Occurrence, Analysis, Biosynthesis, Biotechnology, Physiology and Toxicology.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Dietary creatine intake and depression risk among U.S. adults.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
- Creatine for the Treatment of Depression.Biomolecules · 2019Review
- Hypoxia-related risk factors for death by suicide in a national clinical sample.Psychiatry research · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMany women with major depressive disorder (MDD) respond inadequately to standard treatments. Augmentation of conventional antidepressants with creatine monohydrate and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) could correct deficits in serotonin production and brain bioenergetics associated with depression in women, yielding synergistic benefit. We describe an open-label study of 5-HTP and creatine augmentation in women with MDD who had failed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) monotherapy.
methodsFifteen women who were adequately adherent to an SSRI or SNRI and currently experiencing MDD, with a 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) score of 16 or higher, were treated with 5 g of creatine monohydrate daily and 100 mg of 5-HTP twice daily for 8 weeks, with 4 weeks of posttreatment follow-up. The primary outcome was change in mean HAM-D scores.
resultsMean HAM-D scores declined from 18.9 (SD, 2.5) at pretreatment visits to 7.5 (SD, 4.4) (P < 0.00001), a decrease of 60%. Participants did not experience any serious treatment-related adverse events.
conclusionsCombination treatment with creatine and 5-HTP may represent an effective augmentation strategy for women with SSRI- or SNRI-resistant depression. Given the limitations of this small, open-label trial, future study in randomized, placebo-controlled trials is warranted.
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Registered trials
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