Supplement evidence

096 / 575Cognition

Phosphatidylserine

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The short answer

Small trials examine memory, stress, and exercise; clinically meaningful cognitive benefit is uncertain.

Evidence and scope: Mixed evidence
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Trials are inconsistent or small, so a reliable clinically important benefit is not established.
Before deciding: Key concern: Anticoagulants, cholinergic medicines, insomnia, soy allergy, and pregnancy require review.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Cognitive-performance research100 mg two or three times daily in many trials

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityFat-soluble / lipid-based

Fat-soluble or lipid-based. Absorption generally improves with a meal containing fat.

How it is commonly taken

Take with meals containing fat.

Do not combine casually

Anticoagulants, cholinergic medicines, insomnia, soy allergy, and pregnancy require review.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

2research papers in this ledger

2unique primary studies represented

614unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2001

Does not support the tested claimPMID 11842880

Soy-derived phosphatidylserine for age-associated memory impairment

Neither dose improved any memory or cognitive outcome versus placebo. This directly relevant soy-product trial conflicts with older positive bovine-derived evidence.

Published: 2001Duration: 12 weeks plus 3-week washoutn=120 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Randomized, placebo-controlled, three-arm trial
Population: 120 adults older than 57 with age-associated memory impairment
Intervention: Soy-derived phosphatidylserine 300 or 600 mg/day versus placebo
Outcome: Delayed recall and recognition, learning, reaction time, planning, and attention

Open research record ↗

1993

Mixed or qualifiedPMID 8323999

Bovine-cortex phosphatidylserine for cognitive decline in older adults

Behavioral and cognitive measures favored phosphatidylserine, but 69 participants dropped out and the tested bovine-cortex product is not interchangeable with modern soy-derived supplements. An author was based at the product research laboratory.

Published: 1993Duration: 6 monthsn=494 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial
Population: 494 adults aged 65–93 with moderate-to-severe cognitive decline; 69 dropped out
Intervention: Bovine-cortex-derived phosphatidylserine 300 mg/day versus placebo
Outcome: Behavior and cognitive performance

Funding or conflict note: The first author was affiliated with Fidia Research Laboratories.

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence22 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewPubMed bounded human-evidence search Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.