Keto diet reduced symptoms of resistant depression

In people with depression that does not respond well to antidepressants, a strict ketogenic diet over six weeks produced a small benefit in symptom reduction compared to a control diet focused on a more "healthy" plant-based dietary profile. The results are published in JAMA Psychiatry.

A ketogenic diet is a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that aims to put the body into a state of ketosis, where ketone bodies become the main 'fuel' instead of glucose.

The study involved 88 UK adults with treatment-resistant depression. They were randomly allocated into two groups: one adhered to the keto diet, the other - a control diet, encouraging an increase in the proportion of plant foods and replacement of saturated fats with unsaturated.

After six weeks, both groups showed a fairly rapid improvement in well-being, but it was slightly greater in the keto participants: in a retelling of the results, this looks like an improvement of about 10.5 points on a 27-point scale versus 8.3 points in the controls. The authors describe the effect as small and emphasise that clinical significance may be limited as the benefit did not appear in all additional analyses.

A separate issue is adherence: after the trial ended, only about 9 per cent of the keto group agreed to continue the strict regimen (retold as "very difficult to stay on the diet").

The researchers do not see keto as a "replacement" therapy, but as a potential addition to treatment-resistant depression, while emphasising the need for further, larger studies.

Important: this is not a recommendation to "treat depression with diet." Ketogenic diets can have side effects and limitations and should be discussed with a physician, especially for chronic conditions and medications.