Nutrition and psychiatry: could nutritional strategies reduce the impact and disability related to mental disorders?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35366/109510Keywords:
nutrition, diet, mental health, psychiatric disorders, depressionAbstract
Mental disorders are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. There is an important need
to improve the results, impact and acceptance of current psychiatric treatments. The relationship
between nutrition and general health has been known for a long time, however, only recently nutritional
interventions have been proposed as a strategy to support conventional treatments in psychiatry.
There are multiple lines of evidence that link nutritional habits to psychiatric pathologies, but in
general terms it is thought that the relationships are actually bidirectional: changes in diet can favor
or modulate the appearance of mental disorders, and in turn, mental disorders can also modify the
nutritional habits of patients. In addition, there are some clinical studies on nutritional strategies that
have already shown encouraging positive results in some psychiatric pathologies. Nutrition is a little
explored therapeutic tool but with great potential as an adjuvant treatment in the future; many more
studies will be necessary to know the accurate role of nutrition in mental disorders.
References
PAHO/WHO. Leading causes of mortality and health
loss at regional, subregional, and country levels in the
Region of the Americas, 2000-2019. ENLACE data
portal. Pan American Health Organization; 2021.
Vigo D, Thornicroft G, Atun R. Estimating the true global
burden of mental illness. Lancet Psychiatry. 2016; 3 (2):
-178.
Lipson SK, Lattie EG, Eisenberg D. Increased rates
of mental health service utilization by U.S. college
students: 10-year population-level trends (2007-2017).
Psychiatr Serv. 2019; 70 (1): 60-63.
Angermeyer MC, van der Auwera S, Carta MG,
Schomerus G. Public attitudes towards psychiatry and
psychiatric treatment at the beginning of the 21st century:
a systematic review and meta-analysis of population
surveys. World Psychiatry. 2017; 16 (1): 50-61.
Honey Kim, Ji-Eun Hong, Min-Joo Oh, Ju-Yeon Lee,
Jae-Min Kim, Il-Seon Shin, et al. Attitude towards
psychiatric treatment and prejudice against psychiatric
medications in general population. Korean J Schizophr
Res. 2018; 21: 51-58.
Bevilacqua Guarniero F, Bellinghini RH, Gattaz WF.
The schizophrenia stigma and mass media: a search
for news published by wide circulation media in Brazil.
Int Rev Psychiatry. 2017; 29 (3): 241-247.
Leichsenring F, Steinert C, Rabung S, Ioannidis JPA.
The efficacy of psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies
for mental disorders in adults: an umbrella review and
meta-analytic evaluation of recent meta-analyses. World
Psychiatry. 2022; 21 (1): 133-145.
Marx W, Moseley G, Berk M, Jacka F. Nutritional
psychiatry: the present state of the evidence. Proc Nutr
Soc. 2017; 76 (4): 427-436.
Kris-Etherton PM, Petersen KS, Hibbeln JR, Hurley D,
Kolick V, Peoples S, Rodriguez N, Woodward-Lopez G.
Nutrition and behavioral health disorders: depression
and anxiety. Nutr Rev. 2021; 79 (3): 247-260.
Bremner JD, Moazzami K, Wittbrodt MT, Nye JA, Lima
BB, Gillespie CF et al. Diet, stress and mental health.
Nutrients. 2020; 12 (8): 2428.
Upthegrove R, Khandaker GM. Cytokines, oxidative stress
and cellular markers of inflammation in schizophrenia.
Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2020; 44: 49-66.
McGrattan AM, McGuinness B, McKinley MC, Kee
F, Passmore P, Woodside JV, McEvoy CT. Diet and
inflammation in cognitive ageing and Alzheimer’s
disease. Curr Nutr Rep. 2019; 8 (2): 53-65.
Stringham NT, Holmes PV, Stringham JM. Effects of
macular xanthophyll supplementation on brain-derived
neurotrophic factor, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and
cognitive performance. Physiol Behav. 2019; 211:
Wang CS, Kavalali ET, Monteggia LM. BDNF signaling
in context: from synaptic regulation to psychiatric
disorders. Cell. 2022; 185 (1): 62-76.
Morkl S, Butler MI, Holl A, Cryan JF, Dinan TG.
Probiotics and the microbiota-gut-brain axis: focus on
psychiatry. Curr Nutr Rep. 2020; 9 (3): 171-182.
Dinan TG, Cryan JF. The microbiome-gut-brain axis in
health and disease. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2017;
(1): 77-89.
Liu Y, Forsythe P. Vagotomy and insights into the
microbiota-gut-brain axis. Neurosci Res. 2021; 168:
-27.
Du Y, Gao XR, Peng L, Ge JF. Crosstalk between the
microbiota-gut-brain axis and depression. Heliyon. 2020;
(6): e04097.
Opie RS, O’Neil A, Jacka FN, Pizzinga J, Itsiopoulos C.
A modified Mediterranean dietary intervention for adults
with major depression: Dietary protocol and feasibility
data from the SMILES trial. Nutr Neurosci. 2018; 21 (7):
-501.
Wlodarczyk A, Cubala WJ, Stawicki M. Ketogenic diet
for depression: a potential dietary regimen to maintain
euthymia? Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry.
; 109: 110257.
Koren D, Taveras EM. Association of sleep disturbances
with obesity, insulin resistance and the metabolic
syndrome. Metabolism. 2018; 84: 67-75.
Crispim CA, Zimberg IZ, dos Reis BG, Diniz RM, Tufik
S, de Mello MT. Relationship between food intake and
sleep pattern in healthy individuals. J Clin Sleep Med.
; 7 (6): 659-664.
Scott J, Kallestad H, Vedaa O, Sivertsen B, Etain B.
Sleep disturbances and first onset of major mental
disorders in adolescence and early adulthood: a
systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Med Rev.
; 57: 101429.
Guentcheva I, Dugas EN, Hanusaik N, Drapeau V,
Sylvestre MP, O’Loughlin J. Depression symptoms and
night eating in young adulthood. Eat Weight Disord.
; 25 (6): 1593-1600.
Skonieczna-Zydecka K, Loniewski I, Misera A,
Stachowska E, Maciejewska D, Marlicz W, et al. Second-
generation antipsychotics and metabolism alterations:
a systematic review of the role of the gut microbiome.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2019; 236 (5): 1491-1512.
Guu TW, Mischoulon D, Sarris J, Hibbeln J, McNamara
RK, Hamazaki K et al. International society for nutritional
psychiatry research practice guidelines for omega-3
fatty acids in the treatment of major depressive disorder.
Psychother Psychosom. 2019; 88 (5): 263-273.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license which allows to reproduce and modify the content if appropiate recognition to the original source is given.
