MSM and Depression

[RancheroTheBee]

I started MSM yesterday; I had my second dose this morning (it's about midnight now). I've been taking 2000 mg of MSM, and this morning, about an hour after my second dose, I was overcome with the most crippling depression I've felt in a while. It was awful. I feel a little better now, but that was horrible. Can MSM cause depression this quickly?

I should also mention that I'm about 24 hours away from my period and I get very bad PMS. It's usually not this bad, but I am concerned. TIA. :)

[goldcopperbrown]

I've never noticed that. I've taken it for a while. I have mild OCD (which I also take something for) and MSM never seemed to make it worse. I might look out for that now though.

[fluffybunny]

I don't know if you like to try to evaluate the state of medical evidence behind a supplement or not, but Quackwatch has a pretty negative article about MSM http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/msm.html

[vanity_acefake]

I did a quick search of the web and all I could see is articles claiming MSM helps relieve depression.
I am on long term medication fir anxiety depression and take MSM (when I remember!) and have honestly not noticed any increase in my depressive moods.
You may try taking less MSM and see if it makes a difference.

[Hotrox]

Actually, I had the opposite effect - too much energy and couldn't sleep initially, lasted about a week and then settled down.

[ellen732]

I can see MSM maybe effecting you after taking it for a couple weeks, but I don't think just one dose can even begin to have positive or negative effects, it's just too soon, unless of course you are allergic to sulfur.

[*Aoife*]

I wouldn't risk it. I know I have stopped taking supplements because of less serious reactions. Depression isn't one of those things I'd brush off. That would be on the serious side of the spectrum of adverse reactions.

[Anje]

I haven't heard of it, but that doesn't mean that you're not reacting to the MSM in your own way.

Why don't you stop taking it for a week or two, til you're past the PMSiness and depression that often associates with that. Then try again. If there's a good correlation between the MSM and depression, then obviously it's not the supplement for you! But I wouldn't write it off because you got depressed right at the height of PMS.

[RancheroTheBee]

Thank you, everyone. :)

I feel a little better this morning. PMS doesn't normally cause such a reaction in me; I usually cry about touching commercials, not drink a bottle of wine and cry myself to sleep. With my mental history, I'd rather not risk the chance that this could make me feel worse.

Thanks for the articles, as well.

[HuggyBear]

You might want to cut back on the dosage and see if that helps. Maybe start with 500 mg for a couple of weeks or so and gradually increase. MSM is a detoxer and should be taken with lots of water and never start it at a high dose. I have been taking MSM off & on for years but haven't had any depression from it. When I first started taking it, I took the recommended dosage on the container (2600 mg). Bad idea. I suffered from excruciating headaches and acne . I cut the dosage in half and that helped tremendously. I have gradually increased my dose back up to the recommended amount and don't suffer from those side effects anymore.

[Topaz]

I've been taking MSM for about a year now with no adverse side effects. I started taking it for a combination of things --- to see if it helped my hair grow faster, and to relieve arthritis pain. I've never had a single negative side effect. I cannot say that it has helped my hair grow faster, but I think it has helped improve the quality of the new hair as it grows out. And my arthritis pain for the most part is gone. If I do a 'detox' and quit taking the MSM for about a week, the arthritis comes back with a vengeance and boy does it feel good to go back on the MSM again. MSM has helped my arthritis so much more than any presciption medication or over-the-counter medicine ever did. Of course that's just me and my experience --- you need to experiment with it to find out if it's right for you.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I've been taking it for years - about 10 years, now I come to think of it. If I stop, I seem to go back to the stiffness in my limbs I was getting following any sort of exercise. I don't think it causes depression. :shrug:

[oktobergoud]

Mmm that might explain me being SO tired lately :x I never thought that it could be from the MSM but when I read the replies here it could be! But not depression, no. In my case, PMS is very different for me every time, some times it's much worse than others. Don't know why exactly, but.. it just is. Maybe it might just be the PMS?
Oh and I also need to pee every 10 minutes the last few weeks (since I've started taking MSM), and I read somewhere that it's detoxing.. so maybe that's one of the side effects as well :P

[littlenvy]

Hi RancheroTheBee *waves* :)

I too hit depression stage in November that I believe is do to MSM. But unlike you I have been taking it for about two months before it started. I was taking 1000 for a those two months and decided to increase to a 2000. It came on my rather slowly so I didn't notice until two weeks later when people were telling me that I was not acting like myself. And it was true.
I had no desire to talk to anyone and just wanted to be left alone. (totally not me LOL)
I tried to figure out what might have been the root of this and the only difference was the MSM.
Everything I read about it said it doesn't cause depression, but I know how I felt.
One article did say that it focuses attention is some people and you know what, THAT was the problem for me. I'm used to doing many things at once and having 100 thoughts in my head at once, with the high dose of MSM I was too focused on just ONE thing at a time. It quieted me down ... way, way beyond my normal self.
I quit MSM for a month and now I'm back on it but only on 1000 per day. :) Feeling good so far.

[Lassie]

It hit me with depression, about 3 weeks after i started taking it. Was taking 3200mg in total a day- but i had built up to that slowly. Then it hit me suddenly. As soon as i stopped i was back to my usual self after one week.
I have started the MSM again as the hair growth result were fantastic. Much lower dose though, i take 1600mg a day. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and so far so good :)
So id suggest taking a lower dose.

[AmbrosiaShadows]

See, this is one of the reasons I believe western doctors call their work 'Practice'.

Everyone reacts differently to everything. No-one knows why it is, but teenagers can have adverse, or "flip-flop", reactions to anti-depressants that, I, myself, have experienced. I was riding the bus home from my school (which is about 30 min to 1 hour away depending on traffic) and within the last half of the bus ride I had gone from perfectly normal, to having the intention and a plan to commit suicide as soon as I got home. I spent a week in a mental hospital by my own volition while the drug wore off.

About a yea later, I had a toxic drug reaction to a mood-stabilizer that cause me to develop a case of dyskinesia, which are touretts-like muscle spasms, that my doctor said was the worst case he had even seen. It rendered me unable to hold a pen or pencil, control a mouse, or use a keyboard and I could not go more than 9 seconds at its peak without a violent muscle spasm.


Baseline is, everyone reacts differently to everything that we introduce to our bodies. Why else would people have food allergies or, like my sister, have benedryl make them hyper?

[LawyerGirl]

I had this side effect when I first started taking MSM. I stopped taking it for a while, and when I started again it didn't seem to affect me in a negative way.

[Zarah]

Take smaller doses with Omega supplements. Since Omega helps with depression. I noticed I feel a bit blue on them too, but i'm still gonna give it two weeks to see. If not, i'm gonna stop. I'm taking 200 mg.