NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters Health) -- Taking low doses of vitamin B6 daily may be effective in relieving the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), including depression, according to British researchers.
"There is limited evidence to suggest that 50 milligrams daily of vitamin B6 is likely to be beneficial in treating premenstrual syndrome and, at this stage, there is no conclusive evidence of neurological side effects," lead researcher Dr. Katrina Wyatt of North Staffordshire Hospital, UK, said in an interview with Reuters Health.
Wyatt and colleagues reviewed nine published trials in which vitamin B6 was compared with (an inactive) placebo in more than 900 women with PMS.
Doses of vitamin B6 up to 100 milligrams daily were "significantly better than placebo in relieving overall premenstrual symptoms and in relieving depression associated with premenstrual syndrome," Wyatt and colleagues report in the May 22nd issue of the British Medical Journal.
Wyatt cautioned, however that no firm conclusions about the effectiveness of vitamin B6 in PMS can be drawn from this study.
"Because the trials were of poor quality for a variety of reasons, we feel that we need to do a large scale trial on the effects of vitamin B6 on PMS before we can make a definitive clinical recommendation," she said.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal 1999;318:1375-1381.
