Study on Ketogenic Diet’s Impact on Bipolar Disorder in Youth

UCLA Health is launching a multi-site pilot study to investigate whether combining a ketogenic diet with mood-stabilizing medications can help manage mood symptoms in teenagers and young adults with bipolar disorder(1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Researchers explore ketogenic diet's effects on bipolar disorder among teenagers, young adults

Go to source). While preliminary research in adults with bipolar disorder has shown that a ketogenic diet may improve mood and executive function, these findings are based on limited open trials. This will be the first study to examine the diet’s effects in youth and young adults with bipolar disorder.

UCLA Health to Launch Pilot Study on Ketogenic Diet for Bipolar Disorder in Youth

Set to begin in March, the 16-week pilot study will recruit adolescents and young adults ages 12-21 with bipolar 1, bipolar 2 or unspecified bipolar disorders. The roughly 40 participants will go on a 16-week ketogenic diet while continuing their standard mood stabilizing medications. Independent evaluators will assess participants each month for depression, mania, anxiety, psychosis, psychosocial functioning and quality of life.

Additionally, participants will provide daily blood samples to measure metabolic indicators. The partnering researchers will be providing the food to participants at no charge. All participants will work with registered dietitians, psychiatrists and psychologists affiliated with the study.

In addition to determining whether the diet will stabilize participants’ moods, the pilot trial will also test whether teenagers and young adults actually stick to the diet.

“We want to show that it is feasible first. Before you test a treatment in a randomized trial, you want to know if people will do it and is there a signal for its effectiveness,” said Dr. David Miklowitz, distinguished professor of psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Miklowitz said that if the pilot study shows the diet to be feasible in young people with bipolar disorder, further research would be needed to test the effects of the ketogenic therapy against a comparison treatment, such as a strictly Mediterranean diet.

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Reference:

1. Researchers explore ketogenic diet’s effects on bipolar disorder among teenagers, young adults - (https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/researchers-explore-ketogenic-diets-effects-bipolar-disorder)

Source-Eurekalert