Vegetarian diet and mental health

A present study in Berlin, Germany investigated associations between vegetarian diet and mental disorders. Participants were drawn from the representative sample of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey and its Mental Health Supplement (GHS-MHS). Completely vegetarian (N= 54) and predominantly vegetarian (N =190) participants were compared with non-vegetarian participants (N =3872) and with a non-vegetarian sociology-demographically matched sub-sample (N =242).

Vegetarians displayed elevated prevalence rates for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders. The analysis of the respective ages at adoption of a vegetarian diet and onset of a mental disorder showed that the adoption of the vegetarian diet tends to follow the onset of mental disorders.

In Western cultures vegetarian diet is associated with an elevated risk of mental disorders. However, there was no evidence for a causal role of vegetarian diet in the etiology of mental disorders. For more information kindly read http://www.ijbnpa.org/content/pdf/1479-5868-9-67.pdf