Depression

Evidence-graded topics and articles tagged Depression.

Topics

• Aromatherapy — Inhaling essential oils may modestly improve sleep, anxiety and low mood, and sleep is the most consistent finding.
• Dancing — Dancing is linked to better balance, mobility and mood in older adults, but trials disagree on whether it prevents falls.
• Exercise and mental health — Exercise eases depression symptoms in randomised trials, and active people are less likely to develop depression.
• Fish Oil — Fish oil rich in EPA eases symptoms of depression in adults, a modest benefit supported by low-certainty evidence.
• Folate (folic acid) — Taken before and during early pregnancy, folic acid prevents neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida, cutting the risk by roughly 70% in pooled randomis…
• Journaling — Expressive and gratitude writing give small, lasting relief from stress and low mood in several trials.
• Psilocybin — In supervised trials, psilocybin-assisted therapy reduces depression symptoms quickly, with effects often lasting weeks to months.
• Saffron — Saffron may modestly ease self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms, according to a 2026 meta-analysis of 34 trials.
• St John's Wort — St John's wort extracts ease mild to moderate depression: in pooled trials they worked better than placebo and about as well as standard antidepressants, with…
• Ultra-processed food — Controlled feeding trials find people eat several hundred extra calories a day on ultra-processed diets and lose less weight than on minimally processed ones.