The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet have been highlighted in numerous scientific studies, but now new research has found that it can also have a very positive impact on people suffering from depression. Specifically, it has revealed that an intervention with a Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) can help reduce depressive symptoms in these patients.
The study that has reached this conclusion has been carried out by Spanish scientists and has been coordinated by Almudena Sánchez-Villegas from the area of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), from the Health Research Institute of Navarra and the Public University of Navarra and Its first signatory is Beatriz M Cabrera-Suarez from the Dr. Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria. It has also had the collaboration of the CIBER from Ana González-Pinto, group leader and scientific director of the Mental Health area (CIBERSAM), belonging to the Bioaraba Health Research Institute Association (IIS) and head of Service at the University Hospital. from Álava.
Depression is a very common mental disorder that has become a public health problem worldwide, especially considering that its incidence has increased in recent decades, which can also manifest during childhood and adolescence – in fact, Childhood depression can affect children as young as three years old – and is considered one of the main causes of deterioration in quality of life.
Until now, no study had evaluated the effect of a personalized intervention with a Mediterranean diet added to standard treatment on the reduction of symptoms in patients recovered from depression. In Spain there are six million people with depression, a disease that affects 8.9% of men and 16.5% of women. The results of the new research have been published in Nutritional Neuroscience and open a path of hope for people suffering from this disorder.
A healthy diet that combats depression
The Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest dietary patterns in the world and constitutes a modifiable lifestyle factor that could influence the onset, development and prognosis of depression. In fact, several observational studies have found a relationship between high adherence to the Mediterranean diet and a lower risk of depression.
The results of the present study show conclusively that adopting this dietary pattern that includes the Mediterranean diet enriched with EVOO can lead to a significant decrease in the manifestation of depressive symptoms, which provides new perspectives on the influence of diet on mental health. . This finding not only highlights the importance of nutrition in emotional health, but also suggests the feasibility of diet-based strategies to complement more traditional approaches in the treatment of depression.
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a two-year intervention with a Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), in addition to usual care, on reducing the risk of recurrence and improving depressive symptoms. in patients who had suffered depression on previous occasions.
“We observed that the effectiveness of the intervention with the Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression was maintained over time”
The researchers worked with 52 men and 144 women between 18 and 86 years old who had suffered at least one episode of depression in the last five years and who were in a phase of complete or partial clinical remission in the last six months. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: Mediterranean diet or control, once the specialists included their data in a centralized data management system.
Researcher Sánchez-Villegas explained that “this is the first time that a long-term evaluation of a dietary intervention, including follow-up and a two-year intervention period, has been carried out in this type of patient. In this sense, we observed that the effectiveness of the intervention with the Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression was maintained over time.”
For her part, Ana González-Pinto emphasizes that “the nutritional interventions of the Mediterranean diet, which are safe and economical interventions, seem to be a great tool for the prevention of secondary depression if their preventive properties are confirmed in future clinical trials in major depressive disorder.
Source: CIBER Consortium (Center for Biomedical Research Network)
