This was a randomized controlled trial in the Netherlands. It included 165 children aged 5 to 12 who had an ADHD diagnosis. Some were assigned to a dietician-supervised elimination diet for five weeks, and others to a strictly prescribed healthy diet. A separate group of 58 children whose parents preferred usual care was also followed, but these children were not randomly assigned, so that group can only serve as a rough comparison.
The elimination diet was not better than the healthy diet. Response was rated by parents and teachers together. The odds of a better response on the elimination diet were no different from those on the healthy diet, and the result could have been chance. Fewer children on the elimination diet had a full or partial response (33.0%) than on the healthy diet (50.6%). Children on the elimination diet were also more often "mixed responders," where parents saw improvement but teachers saw the opposite (45.2% versus 25.9%). More children quit the elimination diet early (10.7%) than quit the healthy diet (3.7%).
The authors suggest a dietician-supervised healthy diet might be considered as a starting or added treatment for motivated parents interested in dietary treatment, and that longer follow-up is needed.
The numbers Stats and what the terms mean
The statistics behind the plain-language claims above.
- Huberts-Bosch, 2023: better response on the elimination diet versus the healthy diet, odds ratio 0.68, p = 0.177.
What the terms mean:
- p is the chance of seeing a gap at least this big if there were no real difference. Below .05 is usually read as unlikely to be chance alone.
- Odds ratio compares the odds of an outcome between two groups. 1 means no difference, above 1 means higher odds, and below 1 means lower odds.
Source: Huberts-Bosch A, Bierens M, Ly V, et al.. Short-term effects of an elimination diet and healthy diet in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a randomized-controlled trial. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2023). doi:10.1007/s00787-023-02256-y