The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Subjective Anxiety and Stress-A Systematic Review.
About half the studies in the main magnesium-and-anxiety review found nothing, and the review was paid for by a supplement company — what would you want to see before I rely on it?
Suggestive but preliminary. Not settled. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: The acknowledgments state that two of the three authors "received funding from Sanofi to conduct the initial systematic publication database search" and that "Sanofi also provided access to data from 3 unpublished Mg intervention studies"; the senior author separately discloses membership of the Sanofi Consumer Healthcare Advisory Board. Sanofi markets magnesium supplements, so the sponsor had a direct commercial interest in the review's conclusion, and unpublished sponsor-held data entered the evidence base without independent scrutiny. Many included studies tested magnesium combined with up to five other ingredients.
Oral magnesium sold for mood, anxiety, or sleep is a dietary supplement under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).
The most-cited review of magnesium for anxiety included 18 studies, all in groups already vulnerable to anxiety (mildly anxious, premenstrual syndrome, postpartum, hypertensive). The tally was mixed rather than convincing: 4 of 8 studies in anxious samples, 4 of 7 in PMS samples, and 1 of 2 in hypertensive samples reported a benefit, magnesium had no effect on postpartum anxiety, and not one study used a validated measure of subjective stress. The authors' own conclusion is that the evidence is "suggestive" but that "the quality of the existing evidence is poor."
Worth asking
About half the studies in the main magnesium-and-anxiety review found nothing, and the review was paid for by a supplement company — what would you want to see before I rely on it?
Source
The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Subjective Anxiety and Stress-A Systematic Review. — Boyle NB, Lawton C, Dye L. (2017)
Indexed peer-reviewed journal
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9050429
DOI: 10.3390/nu9050429
How this was scored
- Study design
- Systematic review of randomised trials
- Funding
- Industry funded
- Published in
- Indexed peer-reviewed journal
- Sample size
- not recorded
- 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 "early signal". Suggestive but preliminary. Not settled. It scores 49 out of 100 on our published rubric. One caveat travels with that badge: The acknowledgments state that two of the three authors "received funding from Sanofi to conduct the initial systematic publication database search" and that "Sanofi also provided access to data from 3 unpublished Mg intervention studies"; the senior author separately discloses membership of the Sanofi Consumer Healthcare Advisory Board. Sanofi markets magnesium supplements, so the sponsor had a direct commercial interest in the review's conclusion, and unpublished sponsor-held data entered the evidence base without independent scrutiny. Many included studies tested magnesium combined with up to five other ingredients. 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?
The Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Subjective Anxiety and Stress-A Systematic Review. — Boyle NB, Lawton C, Dye L. (2017). Published in: Indexed peer-reviewed journal. DOI: 10.3390/nu9050429. 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: Systematic review of randomised trials. Funding: Industry 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 magnesium, magnesium glycinate, magnesium citrate, magnesium oxide, magnesium chloride, magnesium aspartate, magnesium l-threonate, magtein, epsom salts FDA approved for this use?
No. Its current status is: Not FDA-evaluated for this use. Oral magnesium sold for mood, anxiety, or sleep is a dietary supplement under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).
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.