Dr. Julia Rucklidge, Director of the University of Canterbury’s Clinical Psychology Programme and leader of the university’s Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group, was recently interviewed by the New Zealand Listener regarding the role of nutrition in mental health.
At the start of the interview, Dr. Rucklidge lamented the fact that despite decades of the conventional practise of medicating people for mental health challenges, we seem to be no further ahead:
Rucklidge points to a 2003 study by US psychiatrists Martin Harrow and Thomas Jobe showing that over a 26-year period, people diagnosed with schizophrenia who had less or no long-term antipsychotic use after the initial acute phase experienced better outcomes than those who stayed on antipsychotic medication. As US National Institute of Mental Health director Tom Insel wrote at the time, “It appears that what we currently call ‘schizophrenia’ may comprise disorders with quite different trajectories.”
Another study, an eight-year analysis of 579 children with ADHD: despite access to drug treatments such as Ritalin, children on long-term medication showed no improvement in educational outcome.
Yet another, reported in a 2013 article in the Australia New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry: despite the use of antidepressants over 50 years, our recovery rates from depression are no better than they were before the advent of medication.
She then goes on to discuss her involvement with research into the effectiveness of micronutrient treatment in managing mental health, specifically Truheope’s EMPowerplus:
Overall, she says, 60-80% of people in these trials respond to micronutrient treatment. These findings come on top of a growing body of international research showing the benefits of broad-spectrum micronutrients in reducing aggression in prisoners, slowing cognitive decline in the elderly, helping people overcome addiction and reducing the symptoms of bipolar disorder, stress, autism and even some cases of psychosis.
A significant point Dr. Rucklidge raises is the lack of long-term effect studies into conventional mental health medication, despite the medical community’s predisposition to using that medication:
Missing from this conversation is the availability of long-term research. Many medications are approved on the basis of six-week trials; Rucklidge says there is no requirement, no incentive even, to look at how those drugs are doing in the long term, even though people are put on these drugs for a long time.
Finally, the article outlines the necessity for changing the way we view nutritional medicine in the treatment of mental disorders:
An argument that is gathering traction is the importance of micronutrients in mental health. Last month’s annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Toronto included a three-hour symposium on micronutrients as a primary treatment for psychiatric symptoms. In an article in the Lancet Psychiatry journal earlier this year, co-written by Rucklidge, the authors concluded that nutritional medicine “should now be considered as a mainstream element of psychiatric practice, with research, education, policy and health promotion supporting the new framework.”
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A better diet generally can also improve mental health. A Mediterranean-type diet – rich in fruit, vegetables, seafood, olive oil, nuts and legumes – has been shown to lower the risk of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. In comparison, the higher-calorie, more processed Western diet typically does not meet the recommended intake of several brain-essential nutrients, most notably the B-group vitamins, vitamin D3, zinc, magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids.
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Unlike those on mood stabilisers such as antidepressants, who often describe a numbing affect, people taking micronutrients “still experience anxiety, sadness, joy. But these are normal emotions that you want to have. We’ve been led to think if a treatment is working, then those symptoms are gone – who cares about quality of life? I am beginning to question our focus on only symptom elimination.”
One thing is clear: the role of nutrition in mental health is gaining more exposure. Slowly, more people are accepting the fact that it must take a greater position in the treatment of mental health disorders.