Colleagues Judith Ford from the University of California, San Francisco conducted pilot clinical trials that demonstrated that the ketogenic diet can improve metabolism, reduce clinical manifestations, and enhance cognitive abilities in people with psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder.
Fifty-eight patients participated in the randomized controlled trials. These patients were randomly divided into two groups: 28 received a ketogenic diet, and 30 received a standard diet for one month. In total, 47 participants entered this phase. Subsequently, participants from both groups were offered the ketogenic diet, and 25 of them continued to adhere to it for four months.
The results of this study were published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. Within a month of starting the ketogenic diet, patients showed stable ketosis, as well as a noticeable improvement in key metabolic indicators such as body weight (adjusted p < 0.001), glycated hemoglobin levels (p = 0.05), and insulin resistance (p = 0.05), while a reduction in depressive symptoms was noted.
After four months of regular consumption of the ketogenic diet, a significant improvement was recorded in both positive, negative, and depressive clinical symptoms, as well as an increase in cognitive productivity (with p < 0.001 for all assessed parameters). It was found that an increase in blood ketone levels correlated with an improvement in depressive symptoms and metabolic indicators (p < 0.001 for all indicators), whereas weight loss did not accompany such a clinical effect.
It should be noted that the article also mentions observational studies conducted by Australian scientists, which reached opposite conclusions regarding the effectiveness of meningococcal group B vaccine in preventing gonorrhea in men who have sex with men. This report was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
