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A randomized controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the “SMILES” trial)
Jacka et al. (2017) executed this 12-week, single blind, randomised controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of a dietary improvement program for the treatment of major depressive episodes. The intervention consisted of seven individual nutritional consulting sessions delivered by a clinical dietician. The control condition was comprised of a social support protocol adhering to the same visit schedule and length. Of the 67 individuals who enrolled in this trial (33 = diet intervention, 34 = control), 55 participants were using some form of therapy: 21 using psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy combined; 9 were on psychotherapy alone; and 25 were exclusively using pharmacotherapy. With 31 participants in the diet support group and 25 in the social support group with complete datasets at 12 weeks, the dietary support group was found to have significantly improved MADRS (assesses depression symptomatology) between baseline and 12 weeks, compared to the social support group (p<0.001). Remission, defined as a MADRS score <10, was achieved for 32.3% (n = 10) and 8.0% (n = 2) of the intervention and control groups, respectively; the number needed to treat (NNT) based on remission scores was 4.1 (95% CI of NNT 2.3-27.8); and a sensitivity analysis discovered that the impact of the intervention was robust to violations of MAR assumptions. Jacka et al. (2017) believe that these results demonstrate that improvements made to diet may be an efficacious and accessible treatment option for major depression and also benefit common comorbidities. [NPID: depression, major depression disorder, MDD, therapy, psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, social support]
Year: 2017
