The role of selenium in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of human observational and interventional studies

What this study found

Overall, selenium supplementation reduced depressive symptoms. In the intervention meta-analysis of three randomized controlled trials, the pooled effect favored selenium with WMD -0.37, 95% CI -0.56 to -0.18, with no detected heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, P = 0.959). Observationally, higher selenium intake was associated with a lower risk of postpartum depression (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95 to 0.99), while serum selenium level was not significantly associated with depression overall. The authors concluded that selenium may have a protective role as an adjuvant therapy for depression, but more…

Study & population

Systematic review and meta-analysis of human observational studies and randomized interventional trials on selenium status, intake, and supplementation in relation to depression.

Intervention

Selenium was evaluated as an active intervention in randomized trials at doses of 100 to 200 μg, compared with control.

Key limitation

Only three randomized trials contributed to the intervention meta-analysis, and per-arm sample sizes, treatment duration, selenium form, and adverse events were not fully reported in the provided text.

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