Antipsychotics For Treating Adult Depression Linked With Higher Mortality

In contrast to the dangers of drugs, numerous studies show science-based nutritional approaches are effective and safe in helping combat depression. Researchers have found that magnesium supplements may be an alternative to antidepressants, for example, and that omega-3 supplements can help treat even major depression. There is also mounting evidence linking deficiency of B vitamins with depression. Supplementation with B vitamins has been shown to improve depression outcomes.

Similarly, a meta-analysis published in 2018 looked at 41 studies and found that a vitamin-rich Mediterranean-style diet containing fruit, vegetables, nuts, and fish may help prevent the condition. Overall, the analysis showed that people following a Mediterranean-type diet were 33 percent less likely to suffer from depression than those who weren’t.

With close to 10 percent of the world’s population now said to be affected by depression and/or anxiety, it is time to explore new therapeutic directions that do not involve putting ever higher numbers of patients on dangerous antidepressant drugs. In this respect, we might recall that the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC) is often quoted as having said ‘Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.’ Increasingly, it seems, science is revealing this principle to apply just as much to our mental health as it does our physical health.