Abstract
Objective:
Alternative treatments including micronutrient supplementation have been searched in psychiatry in many studies recently. One of them is the zinc supplementation which was found to be effective in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In animal studies its deficiency has been found to be related with anxiety like behaviors. In primary school children zinc supplementation was searched in few studies. In this study it was aimed to search the effect of zinc supplementation on the level of anxiety symptoms.
Method:
The study was designed as a randomized, placebo controlled trial. 226 third-grade children received 15 mg elemental zinc daily or placebo for 10 weeks. State- Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) was used to evaluate the level of anxiety symptoms.
Results:
It was found that trait anxiety scores of STAIC decreased statistically significantly from 37,39±5,96 to 35,23±6,96 in the zinc supplementation group and from 36,07±6,05 to 33,55±7,46 in the placebo group.
Discussion:
In this study, it was found that zinc supplementation in a high risk group of primary school children led to a decrease in anxiety level. On the other hand, this effect was not significantly superior to placebo effect on anxiety levels. It may be possible to observe different results in a group of children with anxiety symptoms at clinical level.
Keywords: zinc, supplementation, anxiety symptoms
