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“It was like a cloud had lifted, and she could think more rationally again.”
That’s how one mother described her teenage daughter — a sufferer of “erratic mood swings” — after eight weeks on a high-dose regimen of dietary supplements.
In teenagehood, some degree of irritability comes with the territory. But a clinical trial out of New Zealand shows that severe emotional disorders in teens could be exacerbated by something as seemingly innocuous as a gap in their diet.
The study was led by University of Canterbury clinical psychologist Julia Rucklidge, PhD, who wanted to explore how nutrition moderates emotions in adolescents.
To test out her theory that micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) would improve “temper and irritability” and lead to “better overall mental health,” her team recruited 132 teens between the ages of 12 and 17 from across New Zealand.
The recruits all presented with moderate to severe irritability, sometimes connected to a relatively new condition called Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD), which by some estimates impacts 5% of kids and adolescents in the US.
Before the trial, these teens were having what Rucklidge describes as frequent “meltdowns,” potentially three times a week. Their “baseline mood,” day in and day out, was irritable.
“They’re not functioning in school. Their parents are walking on eggshells all the time around them because anything can trigger from zero to 100,” Rucklidge tells The Post.
The teens in the study couldn’t be taking any psychiatric medications like antidepressants, stimulants or antipsychotics. They were split into two groups: One received the micronutrients in the form of a pill three times a day, four pills at a time, for eight weeks. The other group was given a placebo.
The micronutrient formula, sold as the Daily Essential Nutrients supplement by Hardy Nutritionals, was given in a higher dose than New Zealand’s recommended dietary allowance, which is much more strictly regulated than supplements in the US.
Micronutrients helped fill dietary and emotional gaps
Across the board, teens from both the micronutrient and placebo groups experienced improvements in their moods, as observed in weekly check-in calls with a psychologist.
Many from both groups also experienced decreased suicidal ideation, which the authors said about a quarter of the participants reportedly struggled with at the start of the trial.
“For the first time in years, we found ourselves enjoying our son’s company.”
Parents of Tom, a trial participant
But the most noticeable changes to irritability levels occurred for the teens taking the micronutrients — especially those who had more severe mental health diagnoses, and those who came from lower-income families.
It’s not that those kids were necessarily deficient in certain nutrients, Rucklidge explains, but their conditions may be such that they individually required more support than the average healthy system.
“If I’m really sick, I’ve got the flu, then my nutritional needs are higher at that point because my immune system needs to be supported,” she says. “If I’m stressed, if there’s a lot going on, my nutritional needs are higher under those circumstances.”
Parents and clinicians noticed dramatic changes
Some parents of the participants gushed about the experience.
One teen, identified by the pseudonym Tom, started the trial with severe symptoms that sometimes devolved into domestic violence, according to a press release. Upon completing the trial, his parents said that they saw a “radical change” — and for the first time in five years, “we found ourselves enjoying our son’s company.”
“This trial gave us back harmony in our home, and we will be forever grateful,” they added.
Irritability is one of the most common drivers of pediatric mental health services, and is also a symptom of other mental health disorders like ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and various anxiety and mood disorders.
But, according to the authors, “a high percentage of youth with irritability do not benefit from conventional treatments” like psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs.
Plus, those resources are not always available for kids from low-income households.
This study, which was developed alongside health providers from New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori population, included almost 30% Māori participants — in part to understand how different socioeconomic and racial barriers affect things like nutrition and mood disorders.
And the two are linked even more closely than we previously thought.
Teens need better dietary support
This study’s authors cite research connecting poor diet to the development of mental health issues in young people, including mood dysregulation. Early malnutrition in particular appears to have a critical effect, causing all sorts of complications by the time a child becomes a teen.
“What is happening in teenagehood — their brains are under reconstruction,” Rucklidge says. “There’s a lot going on, the metrics are out of whack. Their nutritional needs are higher. They’re going through growth spurts. Their brains are changing.”
When all that growth is fueled only by a diet of ultraprocessed foods, “then you have a collision of forces of miserableness.”
“You’ve got poor diet, and then you’ve got absolute brain reconstruction — no wonder our teens are struggling so much,” she says. “They’re deprived of the nutrients that are required for their brain to function at its best.”
Rucklidge isn’t hoping that everyone starts taking supplements with abandon, however. Supplements could be helpful in some circumstances, but they’re not a panacea.
Instead, she wants this project to be “a wake up call that our food environment is just destroying our brains.”
While there’s still plenty more testing to be done to assess the long-term efficacy and potential side effects of the pills, one thing is certain: From one participant, the micronutrients received the highest praise a teenager can give.
Sarah — a pseudonym for the sufferer of erratic mood swings whose mother said a “cloud had lifted” — said she knew she was receiving the micronutrients the whole time and not the placebo because the changes she experienced to her mood were, in her words, “pretty legit.”
“We could tell if she stopped, as once again she would fall into a ‘black hole’ and we couldn’t reach her,” her mother said. “When on the pills, she could manage her emotions so much better. Being involved in this trial literally felt like a life saver.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems or just needs to talk, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.
