Research Article The Effects of Four-Week Multivitamin Supplementation on Mood in Healthy Older Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial Helen Macpherson, 1,2 Renee Rowsell, 2 Katherine H. M. Cox, 2 Jeffery Reddan, 2 Denny Meyer, 3 Andrew Scholey, 2 and Andrew Pipingas 2 1 Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia 2 Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia 3 Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Correspondence should be addressed to Helen Macpherson; helen.macpherson@deakin.edu.au Received 15 May 2016; Revised 29 August 2016; Accepted 17 October 2016 Academic Editor: Crystal Haskell-Ramsay Copyright © 2016 Helen Macpherson et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Nutritional defciencies have been associated with cognitive decline and mood disturbances. Vitamin intake can infuence mood and randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that multivitamin supplements are capable of reducing mild symptoms of mood dysfunction. However, few studies have focussed on healthy older women. Methods. Tis study investigated the efects of four weeks’ multivitamin supplementation on mood in 76 healthy women aged 50–75 years. Mood was assessed before and afer intervention in the laboratory using measures of current mood and retrospective experiences of mood over the past week or longer. Mobile phones were used to assess changes in real-time mood ratings, twice weekly in the home. Results. Tere were no multivitamin-related benefts identifed for measures of current mood or refections of recent mood when measured in the laboratory. In-home assessments, where mood was rated several hours afer dose, revealed multivitamin supplementation improved ratings of stress, with a trend to reduce mental fatigue. Conclusions. Over four weeks, subtle changes to stress produced by multivitamin supplementation in healthy older women may not be detected when only pre- and posttreatment mood is captured. In-home mobile phone-based assessments may be more sensitive to the efects of nutritional interventions compared to traditional in-laboratory assessments. 1. Introduction Vitamin insufciency is common amongst older people [1, 2] and can lead to detriments to neurological function [3]. For instance, suboptimal intake of vitamins and minerals including folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and zinc has been associated with mild psychiatric symptoms [4] and mood disorders in older people [5, 6]. In addition to psychiatric disturbances, defciency of selected nutrients including folate and vitamin B12 has also been implicated in dementia [7]. Depression and anxiety represent signifcant risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia [8, 9]. Importantly, these dementia risk factors are modifable and can serve as poten- tial targets for intervention. Multivitamins contain a range of B vitamins, as well as antioxidant vitamins and minerals which exert efects on the central nervous system including synthesis of catecholamine neurotransmitters and serotonin [10, 11]. Te potential for multivitamins to modify mood has been demonstrated in a meta-analysis of eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which indicated that multivitamin use over a period of ≥4 weeks can reduce mild symptoms of mood dysfunction in healthy people, free from clinical mood disorders [12]. Only one of these trials focussed exclusively on people over the age of 50 years [13], demonstrating that, in men aged 50–70 years, eight weeks’ supplementation with a multivitamin mineral and herbal (MVMH) formula improved ratings of current mood as well as refections of mood over the preceding week. It has been suggested that micronutrient interventions should show larger efects on mood when measured using near-to-real-time assessments, which permit mood to be tracked on a momentary basis, than when assessed by Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2016, Article ID 3092828, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3092828