Diet Interventions in ADHD – New Perspectives ADD to other Non-Pharmacological Treatments

There has been a resurgence of interest over the last decade in the effects of diet and nutrient interventions on ADHD symptoms. Dietary studies have investigated the impact of food additives such as dyes, elimination diets, the impact of sugar and other food sensitivities, dietary patterns such as the relationship between the Western/healthy dietary pattern and ADHD symptoms and the role of early malnutrition on the expression of illness. In this talk I will discuss four dietary interventions (exclusion of artificial colours and preservatives; restrictive elimination diets / oligoantigenic diets; supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids, and supplementation with micronutrients) on the basis of the evidence from meta-analyses and outline their clinical relevance for ADHD.

References:

• Sonuga-Barke EJ, Brandeis D, Cortese S, Daley D, Ferrin M, Holtmann M, Stevenson J, Danckaerts M, van der Oord S, Döpfner M, Dittmann RW, Simonoff E, Zuddas A, Banaschewski T, Buitelaar J, Coghill D, Hollis C, Konofal E, Lecendreux M, Wong IC, Sergeant J; European ADHD Guidelines Group. Nonpharmacological interventions for ADHD: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of dietary and psychological treatments. Am J Psychiatry. 2013 Mar;170(3):275-89.
• Stevenson J, Buitelaar J, Cortese S, Ferrin M, Konofal E, Lecendreux M, Simonoff E, Wong IC, Sonuga-Barke E. Research review: the role of diet in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder--an appraisal of the evidence on efficacy and recommendations on the design of future studies. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2014 May;55(5):416-27.

This work is supported by grants from ZonMW and the Innovatiefonds (The Netherlands) and the Horizon2020 programme of the EU (Eat2beNICE project).