Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 15
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The investigators hypothesize that the administration of two widely available, naturally occurring dietary supplements, 5 hydroxytryptophan and creatine monohydrate, will reduce the severity of depression in individuals exposed to chronic hypoxia by living at altitude. The purpose of this study is to determine if 8 weeks of dietary augmentation with oral 5 g creatine daily and 100 mg 5-HTP twice daily reduces hypoxia-related depressive symptoms measured by the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) in women with SSRI or SNRI-resistant depression.

Detailed description:
Serotonin and creatine are processed separately in the brain, and deficits in these brain biochemicals lead to distinct clinical problems. Therefore, investigators believe that treatment with a combination therapy, which could correct both deficits, would have a synergistic effect in the treatment of hypoxia-related depression and possibly other forms of treatment-resistant depression. Thus, investigators propose to investigate antidepressant efficacy of dietary 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) and creatine, as a means to restore the brain neurotransmitter and metabolic imbalances linked to chronic hypoxia caused by high altitude residence.

Arms:
arm 1: None

Interventions: intervention 1: 5-hydroxytryptophan and Creatine monohydrate
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None

Protocol document: