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The effects of dietary improvement on symptoms of depression and anxiety: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
First to do so, Firth et. al (2019) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the overall evidence of dietary interventions for improving symptoms of depression and anxiety. The 16 randomised controlled trials included a total of 45,826 participants, and reported shifts in depression and/or anxiety symptoms in clinical and non-clinical populations (all but one included was clinical). Random-effects meta-analyses were used to determine the effect sizes that diet interventions had in comparison to the control groups. Dietary interventions were shown to reduce depressive symptoms (p=0.002), even when focusing exclusively on high-quality trials (p=0.002). The results were also similar when compared with inactive (p=0.038) and active controls (p=0.035). Another finding was that female populations experienced greater beneficial effects in reducing their depression and anxiety, although no effect of dietary intervention was proven for anxiety. This meta-analysis/systematic review demonstrates that dietary improvements possess the potential to lower depressive symptoms across the population. [NPID: depression, anxiety, diet intervention]
Year: 2019
