A clinical trial, led by researchers at Stanford Medicine, recruited 23 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and instructed them to follow a diet consisting of 10 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and about 60 percent fat. The medications prescribed to treat serious mental illness can cause “major metabolic side effects,” such as insulin resistance and weight gain, researchers say, and all of the patients studied suffered from at least one of these conditions.
The fact that it worked in a small clinical trial for these individuals, based on what seems to be some well-thought-out science, doesn’t mean it will work for everyone,” Naidoo said. “Nutritional psychiatry is an emerging field that people should be paying attention to but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t take medication if their doctor is suggesting it.