Red Clover May Counter Depressive Symptoms
Lee Swanson Research Update
Symptoms of depression and anxiety were reduced by about 80% following 90 days of consuming supplements containing 80 mg of red clover isoflavones. The prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was published in the journal Maturitas.
"Although clinical data regarding phytoestrogens and mood disorders is still scarce, the present series determined that red clover-derived isoflavones were effective in reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms among post-menopausal women," wrote the authors, led by Markus Lipovac from General Teaching Hospital Korneuburg in Austria.
Lipovac and his co-workers recruited 109 post-menopausal women over the age of 40 and randomly assigned them to receive either the red clover supplement or placebo for 90 days.
Measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, obtained using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Zung’s Self Rating Depression Scale (SDS), showed that anxiety was reduced by 76% and depression by 78%, according to HADS. The SDS data supported the HADS result, with symptoms of depression reduced by 80%.
People in the placebo group experienced a decrease in anxiety and depression of about 21% on both HADS and SDS, added Lipovac and his co-workers.
Commenting on the potential mechanism, the researchers proposed a role for isoflavones in the protection against neuron damage by inhibiting inflammatory pathways.
"Equally red clover isoflavones protected human cortical neurons against glutamate toxicity and oxidative stress, which could have been the result of their antioxidant and estrogenic actions," they added.
Maturitas 65(3):258-261, 2010
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March 2010