The role of diet and physical activity in managing anxiety and depression: A scoping review
Tatiana Palotta Minari1, Mateus do Carmo Bardella1, Gustavo Padovani do Carmo1
1Department of Neurocience, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Santos, São Paulo, Brazil.
Background:
Lifestyle interventions involving diet, nutritional supplementation, and physical activity have gained attention as strategies for improving mental health. However, evidence linking these approaches to anxiety and depression remains dispersed across heterogeneous study designs and outcomes. This scoping review aimed to map the existing literature on dietary, supplementation, and physical activity interventions related to anxiety and depression, describing intervention characteristics, studied populations, assessed outcomes, and key evidence gaps.
Methods:
A scoping review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches were performed in PubMed, Web of Science, CrossRef, and Google Scholar. Eligible studies examined dietary patterns, nutritional supplements, physical activity, or combined lifestyle interventions and reported outcomes related to anxiety, depression, or associated psychological domains. Studies were charted and categorized by intervention type and outcome focus.
Results:
Forty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. Most primarily assessed depressive symptoms, whereas anxiety was less frequently examined and rarely defined as a primary outcome. Dietary interventions predominantly focused on depression-related outcomes, while physical activity and supplementation studies more often included anxiety, stress, and broader psychological measures. Substantial heterogeneity was observed across intervention formats, populations, follow-up durations, and outcome measures. Some studies also reported secondary outcomes, including sleep, cognitive performance, biological markers, or neuroimaging findings.
Conclusions:
Evidence remains unevenly distributed across lifestyle interventions and mental health outcomes, with a predominant focus on depression. Key gaps include anxiety-specific interventions, standardized outcomes, long-term follow-up, and integrated multimodal approaches. These findings help inform future primary research and the development of targeted systematic reviews.
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