NutriMind: A Combination of Healthy Diet and Psychotherapy to Treat Depression

Summary

University students in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) continue to face growing rates of depression, a common mental health problem. Adding to this burden is the mental health treatment gap, necessitating the need to identify new treatment methods that can easily be implemented at a large scale.

This project will test if a healthy diet combined with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can reduce depressive symptoms among university students in Uganda, a low resource country.

The burden of depression is high in sub-Saharan African countries, largely worsened by poverty, hunger and poor public health service, and lately the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors increase psychological distress among young people in sensitive periods of life, such as students who are about to choose their career and establish family. Successfully managing depression in LMIC is likely to depend on low-cost treatment that can easily be managed to large target populations, yet still be at the scientific forefront, proof-based, and culturally acceptable. This can possibly be obtained with an intervention combining healthy diet and cognitive behavioral therapy based on mindfulness principles.

While healthy diets and mindfulness cognitive therapy individually can partly lessen the burden of depression, these two therapeutic modalities have not been tested in combination among university students in sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. a synergistic effect that is still to be studied.

With the NutriMind Trial, its investigators focus on a neglected global mental health challenge, namely depression among university students in Uganda.

Conditions

• Depression

Interventions

OTHER

Healthy Diet

The targeted study participants will be given advice about healthy dietary intakes. This will entail promotion of foods rich in vegetables/fruits and wholegrain/fibre, fish, olive oil; moderate in lean red meat and low-fat diary products). To be concrete, the study investigators will target energy (E%) from macronutrients as follows: 42 E% total fat (≥ 22 E% from monounsaturated fatty acids, 10 E% from polyunsaturated fatty acids and \<10 E% saturated fatty acids), 35 E% carbohydrate, 15 E% protein and ≤ E 5% alcohol. Importantly, this will meet all Recommended Dietary Intake requirements for adults.

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

MBCT is a skills-based intervention comprising a structured 8-week group intervention program to be delivered in groups of study participants, with an all-day practice session around week six and regular reunion sessions thereafter.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Oslo

  collaborator OTHER

• Makerere University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Bergen

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Prudence A Friberg · University of Bergen

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-01-01

Primary Completion

2025-12-30

Completion

2025-12-30

Countries

• Uganda

Study Locations