RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Randomized Clinical Trial of the Effect of Zinc Supplement on Depression and Anxiety in the Elderly
Abolfazl Afzali1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2021Volume: 14
First Page: 537
Last Page: 544
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-14-537
DOI: 10.2174/1874944502114010537
Article History:
Received Date: 25/7/2021Revision Received Date: 1/10/2021
Acceptance Date: 12/10/2021
Electronic publication date: 23/12/2021
Collection year: 2021

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Anxiety and depression in the elderly are considered important mental disorders.
Objective:
This study was designed to determine the effect of zinc Supplementation on depression and anxiety in the elderly.
Methods:
This study was a parallel randomized clinical trial. A total of 150 elderly aged 60 years and older were allocated into intervention and control groups by using the quadruple blocking method. The elderly in the intervention group received a daily dose of 30 mg zinc supplementation pill for 70 days and the elderly in the control group did not receive this supplement. Depression and anxiety in the elderly were measured using the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory, respectively. A significance level of 0.05 was considered for all statistical tests.
Results:
After the intervention, the mean scores of depression and anxiety in the elderly were significantly decreased in the intervention group, as compared with the control group. Moreover, after the intervention, the serum zinc level in the elderly was significantly increased in the intervention group, as compared with the control group (P<0.05).
Conclusion:
The use of zinc supplements improved depression and anxiety in the elderly. Therefore, it is recommended to use zinc supplements as a new therapeutic strategy for the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety in the elderly.
Registration No: This research was registered in the Iranian clinical trial system with code IRCT2017071635110N1.