Nutritional psychiatry: new opportunities for the prevention and treatment of mental disorders

Extensive evidence now supports diet quality as an independent risk factor for common mental health problems across countries, cultures and age groups. Experimental evidence also shows that dietary improvement can treat even severe clinical depression. This knowledge is now reflected in clinical guidelines. Mechanisms are many and relate particularly to the human microbiota. There is enormous potential for both clinical and public health interventions focused on nutrition for the prevention and treatment of mental, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders, including new possibilities for precision nutrition.

Chair: Professor Hugo Critchley, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, United Kingdom

Professor Felice Jacka, Alfred Deakin Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry and Epidemiology