Dietary creatine intake and depression risk among U.S. adults.
People who eat more meat and fish report less depression in survey data — is there any reason to think a creatine capsule does the same thing a different diet does?
Reasonable evidence with real limitations. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Cross-sectional design: this cannot establish that creatine intake reduces depression risk, and reverse causation is at least as plausible as the causal reading. The paper states the authors have no conflict of interest, but co-author Dr Renshaw is disclosed elsewhere in this literature (in the 2012 AJP creatine trial above) as an inventor on related patent applications, which is why independence is marked false here.
Creatine monohydrate is sold in the US as a dietary supplement under DSHEA, marketed overwhelmingly for exercise performance and muscle mass.
Among 22,692 adults in the 2005-2012 NHANES surveys, depression prevalence was 10.23 per 100 people in the lowest quartile of dietary creatine intake versus 5.98 per 100 in the highest (P<0.001), with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.68 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.88) after controlling for income, race, sex, age, education, BMI, healthcare access, smoking, physical activity, and psychiatric medication use. This is a snapshot of diet and mood measured at the same moment: dietary creatine comes overwhelmingly from meat and fish, so the association is inseparable from overall diet, income, and the well-documented fact that depression itself changes what people eat.
Worth asking
People who eat more meat and fish report less depression in survey data — is there any reason to think a creatine capsule does the same thing a different diet does?
Source
Dietary creatine intake and depression risk among U.S. adults. — Bakian AV, Huber RS, Scholl L, Renshaw PF, Kondo D. (2020)
Reputable peer-reviewed journal
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-0741-x
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-0741-x
How this was scored
- Study design
- Cross-sectional study / survey
- Funding
- Independently funded
- Published in
- Reputable peer-reviewed journal
- Sample size
- 22,692
- Preregistered
- No
- Conflicts disclosed
- Yes
- Independent of proponent
- No
- Retracted
- No
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published August 19, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
Resolv rates this source "moderate evidence". Reasonable evidence with real limitations. It scores 58 out of 100 on our published rubric. One caveat travels with that badge: Cross-sectional design: this cannot establish that creatine intake reduces depression risk, and reverse causation is at least as plausible as the causal reading. The paper states the authors have no conflict of interest, but co-author Dr Renshaw is disclosed elsewhere in this literature (in the 2012 AJP creatine trial above) as an inventor on related patent applications, which is why independence is marked false here. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Dietary creatine intake and depression risk among U.S. adults. — Bakian AV, Huber RS, Scholl L, Renshaw PF, Kondo D. (2020). Published in: Reputable peer-reviewed journal. DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-0741-x. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Who paid for this research, and does that matter?
Study design: Cross-sectional study / survey. Funding: Independently funded. The researchers were not independent of whoever benefits from the result. Industry sponsorship is one of the most reliably measured biases in medicine, which is why funding carries real weight in the score rather than sitting in a footnote.
Is creatine, creatine monohydrate, crm, creapure, creatine hcl, creatine ethyl ester FDA approved for this use?
No. Its current status is: Not FDA-evaluated for this use. Creatine monohydrate is sold in the US as a dietary supplement under DSHEA, marketed overwhelmingly for exercise performance and muscle mass.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.