Shortly after the discovery of niacin, scientists and medical professionals including Dr. Goldberger and Dr. Abram Hoffer helped to establish mandatory fortification in the 1940s.

The nutritional supplement ingestion for 3 weeks was found to increase serum GH levels with 70% relatively to placebo, whereas circulating IGF-I levels did not change.

In this test, endogenous depressives showed a significantly reduced HGH response to clonidine as compared to normal controls, neurotic-reactive depressives, and schizophrenics. However, no differences were found between the endogenous depressives and a group of schizoaffective patients.