Dietary Intervention May Alleviate Symptoms of Depression
Adhering to specific dietary patterns, including the Mediterranean diet, may reduce symptoms of depression, according to a recent literature review published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
“The large burden of early mortality due to cardiometabolic illness, alongside the more recent evidence for diet quality as a risk factor and treatment target for mental health problems, support the imperative for the use of dietary interventions to treat depression,” wrote lead author Heidi M. Staudacher, PhD, Food & Mood Centre, Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia, and study coauthors.
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The study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms linking diet and mental health and to present evidence for the role of diet in treating and preventing depression.
According to the review, adherence to a ‘healthy’ diet—a diet that receives a high diet quality index score—may alleviate depressive symptoms. The Mediterranean diet specifically has a growing body of evidence supporting its efficacy in depression treatment. The 2017 ‘SMILES’ 12-week parallel group study (n = 56) found that a modified Mediterranean diet intervention was more effective in reducing depressive symptoms than a social support group: 32% of participants receiving the Mediterranean diet intervention achieved remission compared to 8% of participants in the social support group. The 6-month ‘HELFIMD’ trial also demonstrated that increased adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with reduced depressive symptoms. Other diets, including traditional Japanese and Brazilian diets, the anti-inflammatory diet, and the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet, show similar potential but require further testing.
The study also cited the state of the gut microbiome, inflammation, oxidative stress, and other biological factors as likely mechanisms of dietary impact on mood.
The authors acknowledged that several limitations may impact existing research on dietary interventions for depression prevention or treatment. For example, some randomized controlled trials linking diet and depression used self-reported depression questionnaires, meaning that participants did not necessarily have a clinical depression diagnosis. This may impact the generalizability of the results for populations with clinical depression. These studies may also be impacted by response bias, attracting participants who have a particular interest in diet.
“Enhancing diet quality is one of a suite of lifestyle changes that can improve symptoms of depression,” the authors concluded. “Future trials must explore whether combined intervention models (eg,diet + exercise intervention) are superior and also disentangle the effects of individual lifestyle components.”
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