Long-Term Effects of an Oligoantigenic Diet in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on Core Symptomatology

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 14; no. 23; p. 5111
• Main Authors: Walz, Greta, Blazynski, Nicola, Frey, Lukas, Schneider-Momm, Katja, Clement, Hans-Willi, Rauh, Reinhold, Schulz, Eberhard, Biscaldi, Monica, Clement, Christina, Fleischhaker, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.12.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: adolescents; Analysis; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - drug therapy; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Central Nervous System Stimulants; Child; Children; Children & youth; Diet; Families & family life; Food; food intolerance; Fruits; Humans; Hyperactivity; Impulsivity; Long-term effects; Nutrition; oligoantigenic diet; Parents & parenting; Psychiatrists; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Requirements; Teenagers; Treatment Outcome; Vegetarianism; follow-up; nutrition; adolescents; food intolerance; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; diet; oligoantigenic diet; behavior; elimination; child
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14235111

In the early 1920s, it was discovered that nutrition is associated with what is known today as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and that certain foods can worsen the symptoms. In previous studies, approximately 60% of the participants experience at least a 40% reduction in ADHD symptoms after an oligoantigenic diet (OD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate ADHD symptoms in children approximately 3.5 years after completing a 4-week oligoantigenic diet. Among 28 participants who completed the 4-week diet, 21 were re-assessed for this study after 3.5 years. The severity of ADHD symptoms was assessed with the ADHD-Rating-Scale-IV (ARS). Of 21 participants, 14 fulfilled the responder criterion, whereas 7 did not. At follow-up, 28% of the participants were taking medication. The mean ARS total score improved significantly from T1: = 29.62 ( = 9.80) to T2: = 15.86 ( = 8.56) between the time points before and after the diet ( = -1.91). There was also a lower ARS total score at the follow-up T5: = 16.00 ( = 10.52) compared to before the diet ( = -1.17). This study shows that individually adjusted nutrition significantly improved the ADHD symptomatology of the participants long-term. This suggests that an oligoantigenic diet with subsequent individual nutritional recommendations could become an additional treatment option for children with ADHD.