Who Benefits from Fermented Food Consumption? A Comparative Analysis between Psychiatrically Ill and Psychiatrically Healthy Medical Students

Abstract

Probiotic therapies and fermented food diets hold promise for improving mental health. Although in this regard psychiatric patients appear to benefit more than healthy individuals, no research has been performed to directly evaluate this hypothesis. The present study examined a cohort of medical students facing a stressful event, and some of the students reported suffering from chronic psychiatric diseases. The amount of fermented food consumption was calculated with the use of seven-day dietary records, while depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the use of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, respectively. In psychiatrically healthy medical students under psychological stress (n = 372), higher fermented food consumption was associated with more depressive and anxiety symptoms. In contrast, psychiatrically ill medical students (n = 25, 6.3% of all the participants) were found to present a negative association between the amount of fermented food consumed and the severity of depressive symptoms (adjusted β −0.52, 95% CI −0.85 to −0.19, p = 0.0042); however, this relationship was insignificant for anxiety symptoms (adjusted β −0.22, 95% CI −0.59 to 0.15, p = 0.22). A significant interaction was found between the consumption of fermented food and psychiatric diagnosis in predicting depressive symptoms (p = 0.0001), and a borderline significant interaction for anxiety symptoms (p = 0.053). In conclusion, psychiatrically ill people, but not healthy ones, may benefit from fermented food consumption in terms of alleviation of depressive symptoms. Our findings require cautious interpretation and further investigation.