> Magnesium, zinc and fish oil supplements don't seem very hard to take.

Obviously people do that and it works for a handful, but rather ineffective in general.

> willing to suffer a little bit.

Yeah, no. That's definitely not something a seriously depressed person can do, I say as someone doing that now. People who suggest these things are completely out of touch with what depression means. You'd be lucky if they were taking shows at all.

>but rather ineffective in general.

Study with 22 people with major depression: "Treatment with both omega-3s was associated with a significant improvement in depression, with an average 64% drop in symptoms for the EPA group and 71% in the DHA group."

https://www.webmd.com/depression/news/20210618/fish-oil-supp....

> Study with 22 people

i.e. worthless. DHA is being studied and has massive effects on inflammation but the science is definitely not there for depression. You need to adjust your epistemology if you are making decisions based on tiny studies like that.

Seems like 22 subjects is better than zero. One is better than zero so if it worked for one person that's probably worth trying for a second. I hate how people act like you can't try anything until it has had a study with thousands of people over years. Sure, that increases confidence but in most cases the study doesn't invent a treatment, it just adds trust in the effectiveness.

No, that's not how it works at all or else we should also recommend fairy crystals at the same time. Anyway, people do try it. That's the point. It's common practice and it's known to not work for most people with severe depression. It's only a matter of time that we have strong meta-meta studies showing that definitively. For now, here's a Cochrane meta-study that reviews 35 studies [1].

1. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...

>i.e. worthless

Certainly not and considering the almost non-existent side effects, it is at least worth a try since it looks very promising. You are right that it is a tiny study but it doesn't mean that it has no value.

I have to say that I know people like you very well, I almost can hear the "go see a therapist and take your meds" or better "don't try and certainly don't think you can solve this on your own". A positive force first and foremost acknowledge people's potential and doesn't put roadblocks everywhere.

The first two are hard to take. Almost all magnesium formulations don’t do anything, and they’ll mostly sell you those because they’re cheaper.

If you take the wrong zinc brand it gives you the worst nausea of your life. Although I haven’t heard of even good ones helping with depression - it is a pretty strong aphrodisiac and testosterone booster, but that’d just be an additional distraction on top of being sad.

Meta studies show those supplements in fact have little to no quantifiable impact on most people's depression out side of placebo

>no quantifiable impact on most people's depression

"According to existing literature there is an inverse relation between magnesium and depression. " https://johs.com.sa/admin/public/uploads/187/46_pdf.pdf

While you N=1000-reddit-teletubbises try to hold back humanity the N=1 change the world.