Multinutrients for the treatment of psychiatric symptoms in clinical samples: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

For this 2020 article, Johnstone et al. found randomized controlled trials where people with psychiatric symptoms took part in multinutrient interventions. A systematic search identified 16 trials with participants suffering from depression, post-disaster stress, antisocial behavior, behavioral deficits in dementia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or autism. Only the studies using subjects with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were selected to be included in the meta-analysis due to the variations found across studies such as participants, multinutrient formulas, outcome measures, and absence of complete data. In these individuals with ADHD, the multinutrient interventions significantly improved global functioning and measures of ADHD inattentive symptoms. The interventions also had positive influences on post-natural disaster anxiety and the number of violent incidents in prison. Formulas with greater variations of vitamins and minerals demonstrated more robust effects than formulas with fewer ingredients. This review emphasizes the need for randomized controlled trials to report full data for all outcomes, to uncover the true impact of micronutrients on psychiatric symptoms. [NPID: psychiatric disorder, depression, post-disaster stress, autism, ADHD, review, meta-analysis, diet, multinutrients, intervention, dietary intervention]

Year: 2020

Reference: Johnstone, J. M., Hughes, A., Goldenberg, J. Z., Romijn, A. R., & Rucklidge, J. J. (2020). Multinutrients for the Treatment of Psychiatric Symptoms in Clinical Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients, 12(11), 3394. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12113394

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