Effect of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on fatigue: A systematic review of interventional studies

A number of studies have examined the beneficial effects of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on fatigue in different population, but the findings have been inconclusive. Herein, we systematically reviewed available interventional studies to elucidate the overall effects of CoQ10 supplementation on fatigue among adolescent and adult population.

PubMed, Cochrane's library, Science direct, Scopus, Google scholar and ISI web of science databases were searched for all available literature until April 2018 for studies assessing the effects of CoQ10 supplementation on fatigue. The Cochrane bias assessment tool were used to assess the quality of studies.

A total of 16 studies out of 1316 met our inclusion criteria and included in our systematic review. Among included studies 10 of them showed significant beneficial effects (p < 0.05) of CoQ10 supplementation on fatigue status among healthy, fibromyalgia, statin-related fatigue, multiple sclerosis and end-stage heart failure subjects. CoQ10 supplementation could alleviate fatigue, but differences between studies population should be taken into account.

It seems CoQ10 has better therapeutic effects in statin-related fatigue and fibromyalgia patients compared with the other disease related fatigue. Finally, in order to draw a firm link between CoQ10 and fatigue, more clinical trials with adequate sample size and with sufficient follow-up periods are needed.