Creatine and cognitive performance in a randomised trial
What it found
In 123 adults, creatine taken daily for 6 weeks gave at most a small benefit on two thinking tasks, and no clear benefit on eight other tasks.
The authors say larger studies are needed to confirm or rule out a small effect.
What they found
Studies in people
Working memory
On the Backward Digit Span, a working memory task, the creatine effect bordered on significance. In raw scores this was about 0.41 extra correct items, which the authors say would mean about 2.5 IQ points if it were an IQ test.
Abstract reasoning
On Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, a reasoning task, there was no significant effect of creatine. In raw scores this was about 0.23 more matrices solved, which the authors say would mean about 1 IQ point if it were an IQ test.
Other thinking tasks
Across eight exploratory tasks covering attention, memory, task switching, inhibition and verbal fluency, there was no sign that creatine improved performance.
Vegetarians vs omnivores
Vegetarians did not benefit more from creatine than omnivores. The authors had expected the opposite, based on earlier work.
Side effects
Negative side effects were reported significantly more often during creatine than during placebo. No one stopped the study because of a side effect.
Overall evidence
The authors say their data give weak to moderate support for a small cognitive benefit of creatine, and strong evidence against the large effect reported in the study they copied.
What the authors conclude
“The real effect of creatine on cognition is likely smaller than that reported in Rae et al. [ 8 ].”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that the real effect of creatine on cognition is likely smaller than that reported in the study they replicated.
- They say that even small improvements in cognition may be relevant, especially if accumulated over many people and over time.
- The authors advise that it would be worthwhile to test for a small effect of creatine in strategically designed, larger studies.
How it was done
Previous studies of creatine and thinking have given very mixed results, possibly because they used different groups of people, doses and tasks. The authors wanted to run the largest test so far, copying the design of a study that had found a large effect.
They ran a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over trial. 123 adults, about half vegetarians and half omnivores, took 5 g of creatine or a placebo daily for 6 weeks each, and did thinking tests after each period.
What it can’t tell you
- The trial measured thinking test scores after 6 weeks of supplementation, so it cannot show whether any effect would grow, shrink or last with longer use.
- Brain creatine levels were not measured, so the study cannot show how much creatine reached the brain.
- Adherence was self-reported and not checked with blood samples, so the study cannot confirm exactly how much supplement each person took.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
- Authors work at
- University of Bonn, Germany; University Hospital Bonn, Germany; University Medical Center, Germany
The paper
- Title
- The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance-a randomised controlled study
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Sandkühler JF, Kersting X, Faust A, et al (2023). The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance-a randomised controlled study. BMC medicine. doi:10.1186/s12916-023-03146-5Free full textPubMed 37968687DOI
Summary written 29 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error