Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30720698›Full record

SynthesisPsychosomatic medicine2019

The Effects of Dietary Improvement on Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Joseph Firth, Wolfgang Marx, Sarah Dash, Rebekah Carney, Scott B Teasdale, Marco Solmi, Brendon Stubbs, Felipe B Schuch, André F Carvalho, Felice Jacka and 1 more

Erratum issuedOpen access · hybridAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Psychosomatic medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 298 papers, 17 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
298citing papers in PubMed, 17 pooled it
64.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

298 citing papers in PubMed, 17 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 524 citations in OpenAlex.

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  18. Trial
  19. Mindfulness for heart and mind: Mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction randomized clinical trial for depression symptoms.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026
    Trial
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238 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Joseph FirthFrom the NICM Health Research Institute (Firth, Sarris), Western Sydney University, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia; Division of Psychology and Mental Health (Firth, Carney), Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; Deakin University (Marx, Dash, Jacka), Food & Mood Centre, IMPACT Strategic Research Centre, School of Medicine, Barwon Health, Geelong, Victoria, Australia; Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Dash), Metabolic and Vascular Physiology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Youth Mental Health Research Unit (Carney), Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, United Kingdom; School of Psychiatry (Teasdale), Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Keeping the Body in Mind Program (Teasdale), South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Neurosciences Department (Solmi), University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Padua University Hospital (Solmi), Psychiatry Unit, Padua, Italy; Physiotherapy Department (Stubbs), South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychological Medicine (Stubbs), Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; Post Graduate Program in Health and Human Development (Schuch), La Salle University, Canoas, Brazil; Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (Schuch), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Department of Psychiatry (Carvalho), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)(Carvalho), Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Black Dog Institute (Jacka), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (Jacka), Centre for Adolescent Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; and Department of Psychiatry (Sarris), University of Melbourne, Professorial Unit, The Melbourne Clinic, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Wolfgang Marx
Sarah Dash
Rebekah Carney
Scott B Teasdale
Marco Solmi
Brendon Stubbs
Felipe B Schuch
André F Carvalho
Felice Jacka
Jerome Sarris
Barwon Health · AU

Funding

Department of Health ICA-CL-2017-03-001
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivePoor diet can be detrimental to mental health. However, the overall evidence for the effects of dietary interventions on mood and mental well-being has yet to be assessed. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining effects of dietary interventions on symptoms of depression and anxiety.

methodsMajor electronic databases were searched through March 2018 for all randomized controlled trials of dietary interventions reporting changes in symptoms of depression and/or anxiety in clinical and nonclinical populations. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to determine effect sizes (Hedges' g with 95% confidence intervals [CI]) for dietary interventions compared with control conditions. Potential sources of heterogeneity were explored using subgroups and meta-regression analyses.

resultsResults: Sixteen eligible randomized controlled trials (published in English) with outcome data for 45,826 participants were included; the majority of which examined samples with nonclinical depression (n = 15 studies). Nonetheless, dietary interventions significantly reduced depressive symptoms (g = 0.162, 95% CI = 0.055 to 0.269, p = 0.003). Similar effects were observed among high-quality trials (g = 0.171, 95% C.I.=0.057 to 0.286, p=0.003) and when compared with both inactive (g = 0.114, 95% C.I.=0.008 to 0.219, p=0.035) and active controls (g = 0.224, 95% C.I.= 0.052 to 0.397, p = 0.011). No effect of dietary interventions was observed for anxiety (k = 11, n = 2270, g = 0.085, 95% C.I. = -0.031 to 0.202, p=0.151). Studies with female samples observed significantly greater benefits from dietary interventions, for symptoms of both depression and anxiety.

conclusionsDietary interventions hold promise as a novel intervention for reducing symptoms of depression across the population. Future research is required to determine the specific components of dietary interventions that improve mental health, explore underlying mechanisms, and establish effective schemes for delivering these interventions in clinical and public health settings. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO Online Protocol: CRD42018091256.

Indexed as

Randomized Controlled Trials as TopicAnxiety DisordersDepressive DisorderHumans

Identifiers

PMID30720698
PMCPMC6455094
OpenAlexW2932483450

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.