Does chromium help with anxiety? What the research does and doesn't show

No human trial has tested chromium for anxiety, so the evidence doesn't support it as a treatment either way. Chromium's documented human psychiatric research is about atypical depression, not anxiety. On the safety side, the mild side effects reported in human chromium trials are gastrointestinal — anxiety isn't among them, and the only direct anxiety research on chromium is in rats, where it reduced anxiety-like behavior rather than causing it.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support chromium, in any form or dose, as a treatment for anxiety, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder — no human trial has measured that outcome. It also doesn't support a claim that chromium supplements commonly cause anxiety as a side effect; that isn't among the adverse effects reported in the human trial data. And it doesn't support drawing a conclusion about people from the rat studies described below, which measured a different species, a different behavior test, and often higher relative doses than a human supplement serving.

What the trials found

Chromium's one human psychiatric trial is about a different condition. A placebo-controlled pilot trial gave 600 mcg/day of chromium picolinate to 15 people with atypical depression for 8 weeks; 70% of the chromium group met responder criteria for depression, versus none on placebo. That trial measured depression symptoms — appetite, mood, carbohydrate craving — not anxiety, and its result doesn't transfer to a different condition.

The only research that directly measured anxiety and chromium is in rats. One study gave chromium picolinate in drinking water to diabetic and normal rats and used a standard maze test (the elevated plus maze) to measure anxiety-like behavior; chromium increased the rats' preference for the maze's open arm, which researchers interpret as reduced anxiety-like behavior, in both diabetic and normal animals. A second study, in rats exposed to chronic mild stress, found a similar reduction in anxiety-like and depression-like behavior at higher doses, alongside increased brain serotonin and decreased stress-hormone levels. Both studies point toward chromium reducing anxiety-like behavior in rats, not increasing it — but animal behavior tests are a different measure from human anxiety, at doses expressed differently than a human supplement label, and neither has been followed up with a human trial.

On the safety side: the adverse effects most consistently reported across human chromium trials are mild and gastrointestinal — loose stools, headache, dizziness, occasionally a skin reaction — reported at rates not clearly different from placebo in most reviews. Anxiety or a related psychiatric symptom isn't listed among the documented side effects in that trial data. See chromium side effects for that evidence in full.

Questions people ask

Can chromium cause anxiety?

It isn't among the side effects reported in human chromium trials, which list mild gastrointestinal effects as the most common. The only direct anxiety research on chromium — in rats — found a reduction in anxiety-like behavior, not an increase.

Can chromium picolinate cause anxiety?

The same answer applies to chromium picolinate specifically, since it's the form used in the human trial data on side effects and in the animal anxiety studies described above. No human trial has reported anxiety as a chromium picolinate side effect.

Does chromium help with anxiety?

No human trial has tested that question. Chromium's human psychiatric research is limited to one small trial in atypical depression, a different condition, and doesn't extend to anxiety.

When to talk to a doctor

Anxiety that interferes with daily life, work or sleep is worth raising with a doctor. Chromium is not a treatment for anxiety, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, and nothing above supports using it as a substitute for an evaluation, therapy or medication a doctor might recommend. If you take medication for anxiety or any other condition, or are pregnant or nursing, talk to a doctor before adding any supplement.

Related reading: chromium side effects, chromium and melatonin blends, and who should not take chromium.