Preclinical studies and case reports have suggested that ketogenic diets (KDs) may offer therapeutic benefits in depression, but robust evidence from well-controlled randomized clinical trials remains limited. To address this gap, a study evaluated the efficacy of a KD compared with a control diet in 88 adults with treatment-resistant depression, with a mean age of 42.1 years. The study found that both the ketogenic and phyto diet groups showed substantial reductions in depression severity, with mean decreases in 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores at 6 weeks of −10.5 and −8.3 respectively.
The mean between-group differences in PHQ-9 scores were −2.18 at 6 weeks and −1.85 at 12 weeks, respectively. No differences were observed in the secondary outcomes, including PHQ-9 score at 12 weeks, depression remission, anxiety, anhedonia, cognitive impairment, quality of life, and…
