Diet adherence may improve mental health in college students with migraine

Key takeaways:

• High adherence was linked to better anxiety and depression metric scores from pre- to post-diet education.
• The results warrant further research into elimination diets in migraine treatment.

In a small cohort of college students with migraine, scores on anxiety and depression metrics improved with better adherence to an elimination diet , according to a poster.

“Anxiety and depression are both conditions that are highly prevalent in university students and individuals with migraine,” Monica Lois Joy, BA, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, told Healio at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting.

“Given the increasing evidence linking nutrition and mental health, we explored how adherence to an elimination diet impacts mental health in students with migraine,” Joy said.

Joy and colleagues conducted a pilot feasibility study that compared college-aged students dealing with migraine who practiced either high or low adherence to an elimination diet.

From an initial pool of 66 individuals who self-reported migraine symptoms, 33 completed the study, which required participants to complete the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire for anxiety and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) for depression at baseline.

Enrollees completed the same questionnaires again, 2 months later, after completing self-directed, asynchronous modules concerning migraine and elimination diets. Participants were also asked whether the diet was incorporated into their daily routines.

The researchers then compiled GAD-7 and PHQ-8 scores, comparing results of diet adherence levels.

According to results, 58% (n = 19) of those who completed the study reported high diet adherence and 42% (n = 14) reported low adherence.

For those with high adherence, average scores on the GAD-7 were 9.4 pre- and 6.9 post-dietary intervention, while scores on the PHQ-8 were 10.4 and 8.6, respectively.

For those with low adherence, average scores pre- and post-intervention for the GAD-7 were 4.9 and 5; for the PHQ-8 4.9 and 5, indicating a lack of statistical significance for these differences in either metric.

“In exploring how adherence to an elimination diet impacts mental health in students with migraine, trends showed decreased anxiety and depression scores with high adherence to the diet,” Joy said. “This study highlights a need for future research in the utility of elimination diet in the treatment of migraine.”