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Evidence summaries

Vitamin B-6 for Premenstrual Syndrome

Vitamin B-6 up to 100 mg/day may be of benefit in treating premenstrual symptoms and premenstrual depression. Level of evidence: "C"

A systematic review 1 including 9 RCTs with a total of 940 subjects was abstracted in DARE. The overall OR relative to placebo for an improvement in premenstrual depressive symptoms (5 trials) in favour of B6 was 2.12 (95% CI 1.80 to 2.48). One trial caused heterogeneity.

In a trial 2 60 patients were divided into 3 groups of 20 patients each - control group, bromocriptine group and pyridoxine group. In control group, patients were kept on ferrous sulphate tablet 100 mg for 3 months, as placebo. There was no significant change in the premenstrual symptoms score at the end of the study period in control group. Bromocriptrine 2.5 mg twice a day and pyridoxine 100 mg/day showed a significant reduction in the mean premenstrual symptom score after 3 months of treatment, and pyridoxine showed significantly higher response rate and lesser incidence of side effects than bromocriptine.

Comment: The quality of most studies was low.

    References

    • Wyatt KM, Dimmock PW, Jones PW, Shaughn O'Brien PM. Efficacy of vitamin B-6 in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome: systematic review. BMJ 1999 May 22;318(7195):1375-81. [PubMed][DARE]
    • Sharma P, Kulshreshtha S, Singh GM et al. Role of bromocriptine and pyridoxine in premenstrual tension syndrome. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2007;51(4):368-74. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords