Key takeaways:
- Excessive adherence was linked to raised nervousness and melancholy metric scores from pre- to post-diet schooling.
- The outcomes warrant additional analysis into elimination diets in migraine remedy.
In a small cohort of faculty college students with migraine, scores on nervousness and melancholy metrics improved with higher adherence to an elimination food plan, based on a poster.
“Anxiousness and melancholy are each situations which can be extremely prevalent in college college students and people with migraine,” Monica Lois Pleasure, BA, a doctoral candidate on the College of California, Davis Faculty of Drugs, instructed Healio on the American Psychiatric Affiliation Annual Assembly.

Knowledge have been derived from Pleasure ML, et al. Anxiousness, melancholy, and adherence to an elimination food plan: A pilot feasibility research in college college students with migraine. Introduced at: American Psychiatric Affiliation Annual Assembly; Could 17-21, 2025; Los Angeles.
“Given the growing proof linking vitamin and psychological well being, we explored how adherence to an elimination food plan impacts psychological well being in college students with migraine,” Pleasure mentioned.
Pleasure and colleagues performed a pilot feasibility research that in contrast college-aged college students coping with migraine who practiced both excessive or low adherence to an elimination food plan. The elimination food plan, which can be utilized within the remedy of many problems, Pleasure defined, excludes meals triggers for a particular illness from the affected person’s each day consumption. Whereas there isn’t any single “migraine food plan” used to deal with migraine, she added, few research have examined the influence of an elimination food plan which avoids all generally reported meals triggers on migraine frequency and severity.

Monica L. Pleasure
From an preliminary pool of 66 people who self-reported migraine signs, 33 accomplished the research, which required individuals to finish the Basic Anxiousness Dysfunction (GAD-7) questionnaire for nervousness and Affected person Well being Questionnaire (PHQ-8) for melancholy at baseline.
Enrollees accomplished the identical questionnaires once more, 2 months later, after finishing self-directed, asynchronous modules regarding migraine and elimination diets. Individuals have been additionally requested whether or not the food plan was integrated into their each day routines.
The researchers then compiled GAD-7 and PHQ-8 scores, evaluating outcomes of food plan adherence ranges.
In line with outcomes, 58% (n = 19) of those that accomplished the research reported excessive food plan adherence and 42% (n = 14) reported low adherence.
For these with excessive adherence, common scores on the GAD-7 have been 9.4 pre- and 6.9 post-dietary intervention, whereas scores on the PHQ-8 have been 10.4 and eight.6, respectively.
For these with low adherence, common scores pre- and post-intervention for the GAD-7 have been 4.9 and 5; for the PHQ-8 4.9 and 5, indicating a scarcity of statistical significance for these variations in both metric.
“In exploring how adherence to an elimination food plan impacts psychological well being in college students with migraine, traits confirmed decreased nervousness and melancholy scores with excessive adherence to the food plan,” Pleasure mentioned. “This research highlights a necessity for future analysis within the utility of elimination food plan within the remedy of migraine.”
Editor’s Notice: This story was up to date on Could 20, 2025 with a clarification of the parameters of the elimination food plan featured within the writer’s analysis.