For those living with mental illness and searching for nutritional methods of support, the results of a recent vitamin study are promising.

Researchers at New York University and the University of Calgary ­investigated the benefits of a multinutrient formula (www.truehope.com) specifically formulated to address the symptoms of mental illnesses such as bipolar affective disorder, depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder and other central nervous system disorders.

Information was assessed from 358 adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder who used the micronutrient formula and kept six months' worth of symptom data. Half of the participants were taking medications for bipolar disorder (lithium, anticonvulsants, atypical antipsychotics) and half were either medication-free or taking other medications.

At the three- and six-month marks, over half of the participants reported a more than 50 percent improvement in symptoms. One-third of participants experienced symptom improvement of more than 75 percent.

"Decreased symptom severity over the six months was associated with increasing micronutrient dosage with reducing medication," the study authors reported last year in the journal Clinical Medicine: Psychiatry. "Symptom improvements were significant and sustained at six months, suggesting that benefits were not attributable to placebo/expectancy effects."

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