Coenzyme Q10 and depression

Abstract While, deficiency of monoamines has been the prevailing hypothesis on depression etiology, dealing with nonresponsive patients treated with these compounds has been one of the challenging topics for scientists and clinicians. Recent works highlight coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) deficiency as a hallmark of depression occurrence, which is related to oxidative stress pathways. Underlying mechanism of CoQ10 in depression treatment is still poorly known. CoQ10 acts as an important electron carrier in electron transfer chain (ETC). It is known to promote mitochondrial function and plays a key role in ATP production. The therapeutic effect of CoQ10 could be the consequence of oxidative damage prevention. It seems that acute and chronic use of CoQ10 does not have a serious adverse effect on human and experimental animals. Also, approximately all clinical trials confirmed beneficial properties of CoQ10 in the treatment of depression and neurodegenerative diseases. In this chapter, we talk about clinical benefits of CoQ10 and its correlation with depression by a comprehensive approach on the recent animal and human studies.