New Zealand researchers recently published a study in Human Psychopharmacology, following up on a study they did regarding anxiety and EMPowerplus.
In 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand, experienced a 6.3 earthquake that killed nearly 200 people and injured as many as 2000. Several residents experienced heightened anxiety or stress for several months following the earthquake, and these researchers conducted a randomized trial with 120 adults experiencing such symptoms.
Of those participants, 85 agreed a year later to complete questionnaires assessing mood, anxiety, stress, and symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder: 64 had received varying doses of micronutrients and 21 had received no treatment.
Participants had improved psychologically over that year, regardless of whether they had received treatment. That being said, those who had received treatment had received better long-term outcomes. As well, those who stopped treatment or had continued treatment they had received during the study had better psychological functioning than those who had switched to other treatments, including medication.
The researchers concluded that:
Disaster survivors improve psychologically over time regardless of receiving intervention; however, those taking micronutrients during the acute phase following a disaster show better outcomes, identifying micronutrients as a viable treatment for acute stress following a natural disaster with maintenance of benefits 1 year later.