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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Nov;37(6):e2852.
doi: 10.1002/hup.2852. Epub 2022 Jul 19.

High-dose Vitamin B6 supplementation reduces anxiety and strengthens visual surround suppression

David T Field  1 , Rebekah O Cracknell  1 , Jessica R Eastwood  1 , Peter Scarfe  1 , Claire M Williams  1 , Ying Zheng  1 , Teresa Tavassoli  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

High-dose Vitamin B6 supplementation reduces anxiety and strengthens visual surround suppression

David T Field et al. Hum Psychopharmacol. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: Vitamins B6 and B12 are involved in metabolic processes that decrease neural excitation and increase inhibition. This double-blind study investigated the effects of supplementation for 1 month with a high-dose of B6 or B12, compared to placebo, on a range of behavioural outcome measures connected to the balance between neural inhibition and excitation.

Methods: 478 young adults were recruited over five linked phases. Self-reported anxiety (N = 265) and depression (N = 146) were assessed at baseline and after supplementation. Several sensory measures acted as assays of inhibitory function and were assessed post-supplementation only; these were surround suppression of visual contrast detection (N = 307), binocular rivalry reversal rate (N = 172), and a battery of tactile sensitivity tests (N = 180).

Results: Vitamin B6 supplementation reduced self-reported anxiety and induced a trend towards reduced depression, as well as increased surround suppression of visual contrast detection, but did not reliably influence the other outcome measures. Vitamin B12 supplementation produced trends towards changes in anxiety and visual processing.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that high-dose Vitamin B6 supplementation increases inhibitory GABAergic neural influences, which is consistent with its known role in the synthesis of GABA.

Keywords: GABA; Vitamin B12; Vitamin B6; anxiety; depression; surround suppression.

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Conflict of interest statement

No conflicts of interest have been declared.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Panel 1: the reduction in anxiety (SCAARED questionnaire total scores) in the Vitamin B6 group between baseline and post‐test; Panel 2: the trend towards a reduction in anxiety in the Vitamin B12 group. Symbols above bars indicate significant differences between baseline and post‐test, p < 0.001. Error bars indicate +/− 1 SEM
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Panel 1: Comparing B6 to placebo, there was a trend towards an interaction between treatment group and direction of baseline to post‐test change in depression scores, which was not observed when comparing B12 to placebo (Panel 2) Error bars indicate +/− 1 SEM
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Panel 1: Vitamin B6 supplementation raised contrast thresholds significantly only in the presence of a suppressive surround; Panel 2: Vitamin B12 supplementation resulted a trend towards raised contrast thresholds. Symbols above bars indicate significant differences between baseline and post‐test, p < 0.05. Error bars indicate +/− 1 SEM
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The non‐significant effect of treatment group on binocular rivalry reversal rates. Error bars indicate +/− 1 SEM
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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