Ketogenic diet: A dietary modification as an anxiolytic approach?

Abstract

Anxiety disorders comprise persistent, disabling conditions that are distributed across the globe, and are associated with the high medical and socioeconomic burden of the disease. Within the array of biopsychosocial treatment modalities—including monoaminergic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and CBT—there is an unmet need for the effective treatment of anxiety disorders resulting in full remission and recovery. Nutritional intervention may be hypothesized as a promising treatment strategy; in particular, it facilitates relapse prevention. Low-carbohydrate high-fat diets (LCHF) may provide a rewarding outcome for some anxiety disorders; more research is needed before this regimen can be recommended to patients on a daily basis, but the evidence mentioned in this paper should encourage researchers and clinicians to consider LCHF as a piece of advice somewhere between psychotherapy and pharmacology, or as an add-on to those two.