With the possible exception of caffeine, there’s no (legal) performance-enhancing substance more potent, trusted or well-studied as creatine. In the last three decades, sports science has shown it can significantly increase an athlete’s strength, muscle mass, speed and power.
In recent years, though, researchers have built a persuasive case file for creatine’s role in wider health and wellbeing. Studies have shown it can improve metabolic health and cognitive performance.
It can [aid recovery](https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-creatine/art-203475…
With the possible exception of caffeine, there’s no (legal) performance-enhancing substance more potent, trusted or well-studied as creatine. In the last three decades, sports science has shown it can significantly increase an athlete’s strength, muscle mass, speed and power.
In recent years, though, researchers have built a persuasive case file for creatine’s role in wider health and wellbeing. Studies have shown it can improve metabolic health and cognitive performance.
It can aid recovery from serious injury and facilitate healthy ageing. There’s also growing evidence that it can help not just physical strength, but mental toughness, too.
In 2024, a review concluded that creatine supplementation had multiple positive effects as an adjunctive treatment for depression.
Papers have found, for example, that when combined with SSRI antidepressants, the effects of the medication can be stronger.
Similarly, a pilot study in early 2025 looked at creatine combined with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in patients with depression. The study was small, but it was randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled.
Researchers found that although CBT by itself helped lower depressive symptoms, the effects were significantly stronger in those who had also taken creatine during the eight-week study.
“Depression is a widespread disorder and we need new therapies that are more effective and work faster,” says study author Dr Riccardo De Giorgi, a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Oxford.
He says that creatine is an interesting candidate partly because it’s so practical. “It’s quite inexpensive, very widely available and it’s what’s called a nutraceutical – like a dietary product.”
Although creatine occurs naturally in our bodies, we get most of it from our diets – mainly animal products. The supplement version often used by athletes is called creatine monohydrate, which is available as a powder or gummy sweets.
Creatine can often be found in the ingredients of post-workout drinks - Credit: Getty
Once it’s in the body, creatine serves as a kind of back-up battery for our cells. It’s converted into a molecule called phosphocreatine, which can itself be broken down and used as energy.
It’s also involved in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is another energy source for our cells.
It’s this role in the body’s energy systems that could underpin creatine’s wide range of benefits – even for mental health.
“Creatine’s role in restoring energy stores within our muscles is quite well established,” says De Giorgi. “Now, the idea is that creatine might be doing something similar within the brain.”
“We think that there’s at least a subset of people with depression, for whom their depressive symptoms may be very much related to low energy levels and fatigue.
"For those people, it’s possible that an intervention like creatine might reach the brain and have a positive impact on symptoms.”
De Giorgi stresses that the work is preliminary and much bigger studies are needed. But even within his own paper, the backup energy system idea offers an intriguing explanation.
People engaging with CBT might have better cognitive resources to engage with therapy, he says.
The theory is one part of an emerging field in mental health research known as metabolic psychiatry. It’s the idea that mental illness could be linked to obesity, diabetes and other metabolic conditions.
If there’s a link, then perhaps nutritional and other metabolic interventions offer a new kind of therapy, “not related to the usual chemicals in the brain like serotonin and dopamine.”
Creatine isn’t the only nutritional supplement to be studied as a possible therapy for depression.
A number of studies have found links between vitamin D levels and depression, with one 2024 review finding that vitamin D supplements had a significant effect in lowering depressive symptoms.
Studies have also shown that magnesium supplements can lower depression scores.
As with creatine, more research is needed, but it’s a reason for optimism in the fight for mental health. Around one in six people in the UK suffer from depression in a given week and it’s estimated that 30 per cent of cases are treatment-resistant.
Creatine and other supplements might just give us the strength of mind we need.
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