Vitamin B6 with magnesium for stress, mood and quality of life in adults
What it found
In stressed adults with low magnesium, both treatments improved anxiety and depression over 8 weeks.
Adding vitamin B6 to magnesium gave a bigger boost to perceived physical ability at week 4.
What they found
Studies in people
Anxiety and depression scores
Both groups saw their anxiety drop from severe to near normal over 8 weeks. Depression scores also fell from moderate to normal. Most of the improvement happened in the first 4 weeks, and adding vitamin B6 made no difference to these scores compared with magnesium alone.
Quality of life overall
Scores for mental and physical quality of life rose steadily over the 8 weeks in both groups. By the end, participants rated their quality of life close to that of the general French population used as a reference.
Physical role functioning
At week 4, people taking magnesium plus vitamin B6 reported a bigger improvement in their ability to do physical activities in daily life. Their score rose by 14.6 points on average, compared with 4.6 points for those taking magnesium alone. By week 8, both groups had improved further and the difference between them was no longer clear.
General health perception
At week 4, the group taking magnesium alone reported a slightly larger improvement in how they rated their general health. The authors say this small difference is unlikely to matter in real life.
What the authors conclude
- They suggest that magnesium, taken with or without vitamin B6, could offer a meaningful benefit in daily life for people dealing with stress and low magnesium levels.
- The authors note that adding vitamin B6 seemed to help people feel more capable of physical activity, and they call for more research to explore this further.
How it was done
Low magnesium and low vitamin B6 intake have each been linked to worse mood and more stress. The authors wanted to see if taking both together helped mental health and daily life more than magnesium alone.
They studied 264 healthy adults aged 18 to 50 who had severe stress and low blood magnesium levels. Half took 300 mg of magnesium plus 30 mg of vitamin B6 daily, and half took 300 mg of magnesium alone, for 8 weeks. Participants filled in questionnaires about their mood and quality of life at the start, at 4 weeks and at 8 weeks.
What it can’t tell you
- This trial did not include a placebo group, so it cannot show how much of the improvement came from simply taking part in a study.
- These results apply to adults with severe stress and low blood magnesium, so they may not reflect what happens in people with normal magnesium levels.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Sanofi-Aventis (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- Lionel Noah, Béatrice Bois De Fer, and Etienne Pouteau are employees of Sanofi‐Aventis. Gisèle Pickering reports consultancy fees from Sanofi, unrelated to this publication. André Mazur reports consultancy fees from Sanofi, unrelated to this publication. Louise Dye has received research funding from Sanofi and consultancy payments unrelated to this publication.
- Authors work at
- University of Leeds, UK; Université Clermont Auvergne, France; University Hospital Clermont-Ferrand, France
The paper
- Title
- Effect of magnesium and vitamin B6 supplementation on mental health and quality of life in stressed healthy adults: Post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Noah L, Dye L, Bois De Fer B, Mazur A, Pickering G, Pouteau E (2021). Effect of magnesium and vitamin B6 supplementation on mental health and quality of life in stressed healthy adults: Post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial. Stress and health. doi:10.1002/smi.3051Free full textPubMed 33864354DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error