A Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Oral Creatine Monohydrate Augmentation for Enhanced Response to a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor in Women With Major Depressive Disorder

Antidepressants often take several weeks to work, but depressed women who took the antidepressant escitalopram plus 5 g/day of creatine monohydrate, a supplement that increases cellular energy, had earlier and greater symptom decreases than women who took escitalopram plus placebo. The authors found a difference by the second week of treatment, and the remission rate at 8 weeks was twice as high for the creatine group (52%) as for the placebo group (26%). Most side effects were attributed to escitalopram, not creatine, but serum creatinine was elevated in the treatment group.