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Vegan diet and the importance of nutritional self-concept in the treatment of unipolar depression: a new perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2025

C. A. Penkov ,
K. Friedrich ,
J. Krieger  and
M. Ziegenbein
C. A. Penkov*
Affiliation:
Wahrendorff Klinikum, Sehnde, Germany
K. Friedrich
Affiliation:
Wahrendorff Klinikum, Sehnde, Germany
J. Krieger
Affiliation:
Wahrendorff Klinikum, Sehnde, Germany
M. Ziegenbein
Affiliation:
Wahrendorff Klinikum, Sehnde, Germany
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Studies on the psychological impact of a vegan diet and its effect on mental health are still, although the interdisciplinary literature points to significant diet-related cognitions associated with the active choice of a plant-based diet. This study addresses this research gap by framing veganism as an identity-associated aspect of self-concept in young vegans and examines the influence of self-esteem resulting from the vegan diet on symptoms of unipolar depression in a biopsychosocial framework model.

Objectives

veganism as an identity-associated aspect of self-concept

influence of self-esteem resulting from the vegan diet on symptoms of unipolar depression

alternative perspective on the connections between psyche and nutrition

Methods

In a representative sample of n = 659 students from German universities, the absolute and additional influence of diet-related self-esteem on depressive symptoms was investigated using hierarchical regression, taking biopsychosocial covariates into account.

Results

It was found that the self-esteem experience of the test subjects specifically gained from the vegan diet exerts a statistically significant influence on depressive symptoms (B = - 37, SE(B) = 0.02, p <.001) and can also explain a statistically significant additional proportion of the total variance in a biopsychosocial model of depression (ΔR2 = .18, F [1,649] = 272.34, p <.001). Together, the model of eight covariates and nutrition-related self-esteem can explain 57% of depressive symptoms (R2 = .57, F [9,649] = 94.81, p < .001¸ f2 = 0.13). This statistically significant influence of diet-related self-esteem also persists in an exploratory study of different severity levels of depressiogenic distress

Conclusions

The results provide evidence of a psychological impact factor in relation to a vegan diet and identify psychological consequences and thus open up a new research perspective in clinical psychology.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Information

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 68 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 33rd European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2025 , pp. S665
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
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