SAMe I am: amino acid metabolite offers more than a mood boost.(Wellness: supplements and functional foods)(S-adenosylmethionine)

A supplement known for its multiple beneficial uses, SAMe (pronounced "Sammy") is short for S-adenosylmethionine or S-adenosyl-L-methionine. This natural by-product of metabolism is manufactured from the amino acid methionine, and it plays a part in countless metabolic reactions, including the production of several brain chemicals.

Depression

Perhaps due to its essential role in the synthesis of neurotransmitters, SAMe has been studied thoroughly for its effects on mental wellness, and it has been deemed safe and beneficial compared to both pharmaceuticals and other dietary supplements. In fact, SAMe is as effective as standard antidepressants and may enhance their efficacy, according to a November 2002 Harvard research review in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Some of the same researchers reported in the December 2003 issue of Current Psychiatry Reports that SAMe has been more extensively studied for depression than any other dietary supplement, and the literature supports its antidepressant activity.

In a head-to-head comparison with the antidepressant imipramine, SAMe performed equally well for major depression after 4 weeks, as noted in the December 2002 issue of The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. One important note in this trial: SAMe recipients had fewer negative side effects than the imipramine group.

Marisa M. Silveri, PhD, and her team from Harvard's McLean Hospital delved into the mechanism of action behind SAMe's efficacy in depression and reported their findings in the October 2003 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Nondepressed subjects taking SAMe exhibited increases in brain levels of phosphocreatine (PCr), which is a resource the brain uses to maintain constant energy levels. This is important because, as Silveri explains, "decreased levels of brain energy may indicate decreased energy utilization in the brain, which may be a neurobiological mechanism underlying depression.

"So given that depression has been associated with decreased endogenous SAMe levels and reduced beta NTP, it is an empirical question as to how SAMe might improve the neurochemistry of depression," Silveri says. "But now that we know what SAMe does in healthy (nondepressed) individuals, we have a place to start to look for changes and/or differences."