Home / Health / Deplin Side Effects

Deplin Side Effects

Deplin side effects are no greater than placebo

Deplin Side Effects

(from Deplin’s Patient Prescribing Information):

The side effects of Deplin are about the same as those of placebo. A placebo is a tablet or liquid with no active medicine. A sugar pill is an example of a placebo. In rare cases, Deplin may cause mild stomach upset or rash. (1)

Deplin is the brand name given to Pamlab’s pharmaceutical formulation of l-methylfolate. L-methylfolate is the bioactive form of the vitamin folate, also known as folic acid or vitamin B9.

Deplin was created and marketed to address a deficiency in individuals who have a genetic mutation that does not allow their bodies to create an enzyme (MTHFR) that transforms regular dietary folate into l-methylfolate.

People who are deficient of this gene have significantly lowered amounts of l-methylfolate. This is significant because l-methylfolate is used to build our most important brain chemicals for mood, cognition and drive. These brain chemicals are serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine.

Deplin, by introducing the deficient l-methylfolate into these people’s bodies, allows them to produce these brain chemicals or neurotransmitters and see a significant increase in the parameters mentioned above. It is used alone or as an adjunct with an anti-depressant to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). Deplin provides more neurotransmitters for the anti-depressants to work with.

Deplin is a medical food. “Medical foods are foods that are specially formulated and intended for the dietary management of a disease that has distinctive nutritional needs that cannot be met by normal diet alone.” Medical foods must be shown to be essentially harmless to patients, as it is merely a nutritional product that the patient is unable to receive through regular dietary means. Naturally the side effects or adverse reactions to such medical foods are virtually non-existent. Any reactions are usually from an allergic intolerance.

———————————————————————————————————————————-

References

1) Zajecka, J et al. (2012, May) annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Philidelphia, PA.

About Doctor Scott Health

Dr. Scott McLeod, PharmD is an independent researcher, health advocate and author living in Santa Barbara, CA. For more information about Scott and Doctor Scott Health please visit the 'About' section, here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Scroll To Top