Background: Mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are complex and multifactorial, impacting the quality of life for those suffering and making them difficult to manage for their providing health care providers. Diet, stress, medication, genetics, and the microbiome have been attributed to playing a role. Currently, prescription drugs are the first course of treatment despite the World Health Organization calling for a need to develop lifestyle interventions to manage these disorders. The use of single amino acids to impact selected neurotransmitters has demonstrated positive outcomes in the literature, however, the use of multiple amino acids, alongside personalized nutritional therapies is not well documented for mood disorders. This case report demonstrates the effective use of amino acids as an innovative therapy for the management of mood disorders.
Case description: A 26-year-old Caucasian female presented with anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, carbohydrate cravings, and low energy. She had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), bipolar depression II and generalized anxiety. The patient was under the care of a counselor and physician and was prescribed Lamictal (200 mg/day). With only moderate success with other therapies, the patient sought nutritional counseling. A personalized nutrition intervention was created to include targeted amino acid therapy (tryptophan, glycine, L-glutamine, D-phenylalanine, L-theanine, and L-tyrosine), select nutrients (multi vitamin/mineral, zinc, vitamin C, GLA and magnesium) and a low-glycemic diet to be followed for 12 weeks.
Conclusion: This case report demonstrated the use of targeted micronutrient and amino acid therapy, along with a low glycemic diet, resulted in marked improvement in all mood disorder symptoms this patient experienced. It also highlights that a comprehensive integrative approach may be a beneficial option for individuals with mood disorders.
Keywords: Amino acid therapy; Anxiety; Bipolar disorder; Case report; Mood disorder; Nutrition; Supplements.
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