Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW2007, Australia.
National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW2480, Australia.
Br J Nutr. 2021 Sep 14;126(5):730-737. doi: 10.1017/S0007114520004699. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
Depression affects approximately 350 million people worldwide. Evidence suggests that diet plays an important role with the Mediterranean diet (MD) displaying promising preliminary results. Currently, most of the research is conducted on women and older adults; however, the majority of mental illnesses occur before the age of 25 years. Men are less likely to seek help than women with only 13 % of young men aged 15-24 years seeking help for their mental health. Young men are hugely underrepresented in the current research which poses a significant issue. A 12-week randomised controlled trial will be conducted to examine the effect of a MD on the symptoms of depression in young men aged 18-25 years. Participants will be randomised to either follow a MD or receive the inactive control therapy befriending. Participants will attend three appointments at baseline, week 6 and week 12. The main outcome will be changes to the Beck's Depression Inventory score. This research aims to answer the question of whether diet can be used effectively in this population. This will be the first trial to examine the effect of a MD on the symptoms of depression in young men. This trial will help fill a significant research gap, contribute to the growing field of nutritional psychiatry, guide future research and inform advice given by clinicians to this specific demographic.
全球约有 3.5 亿人受到抑郁症的影响。有证据表明，饮食起着重要的作用，而地中海饮食（Mediterranean diet，MD）显示出有希望的初步结果。目前，大多数研究都是针对女性和老年人进行的；然而，大多数精神疾病都发生在 25 岁之前。与女性相比，男性寻求帮助的可能性较小，只有 13%的 15-24 岁的年轻男性寻求他们的心理健康帮助。在当前的研究中，年轻男性的代表性严重不足，这是一个重大问题。将进行一项为期 12 周的随机对照试验，以检验 MD 对 18-25 岁年轻男性抑郁症状的影响。参与者将被随机分配到遵循 MD 或接受无效对照治疗——交友。参与者将在基线、第 6 周和第 12 周进行三次预约。主要结果将是贝克抑郁量表评分的变化。这项研究旨在回答饮食是否可以在这一人群中有效使用的问题。这将是首次试验研究 MD 对年轻男性抑郁症状的影响。这项试验将有助于填补重大研究空白，为营养精神病学这一不断发展的领域做出贡献，指导未来的研究，并为临床医生向这一特定人群提供的建议提供信息。
