Can diet help improve depression symptoms?

ISLAMABAD: Depression is such a common mental health disorder that it affects around 5%Trusted Source of all adults around the world according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

There are different types of depression such as major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder lasting for at least 2 years.

The causes of depression are often manifold with both genetic and situational risk factors involved specific stressors or conditions acting as triggers leading to recurrent major depressive episodes.

And while targeted therapy and medication help many overcome or manage their symptoms of depression these interventions do not work equally for everyone.

This has led researchers to cast their nets even wider in looking for all the factors that may contribute to depression as well as for novel approaches for depression treatments and symptom management.

Recently diet has come to the forefront of medical research with experts debating the pros and cons of using dietary interventions to treat or even prevent different medical conditions.

Over the past few years several studies have suggested that opting for healthier diets rich in vegetables fruit and whole grains may help improve depression symptoms.