Mental disorders and nutrition

When someone is stressed, it usually also causes changes in his/her eating habits. One person will eat much more and gain weight, while another will have no appetite at all, will eat much less and lose weight. The danger of this is that the nutritional status deteriorates, the BMI get too low and the person will weaken.

Medication

There are different types of medication that are prescribed for mental disorders (depression, bipolar disorder). Unfortunately, there are a lot of medicines that have an appetite-stimulating effect. These often result in weight gain.
There are two types of medicines that have a big influence on the diet: MAO inhibitors and Lithium.
For people who take MAO inhibitors, tyramine in food may cause an increase in blood pressure. Therefore, they should follow a “tyramine-restricted diet”.
People who use lithium are often very thirsty and have a dry mouth. That’s why people often drink much more. It’s important to pay attention to what you drink; limit the use of high-calorie drinks. Weight is also gained by retaining moisture or by a changed metabolism.

 

In what products can you find tyramine?

Tyramine naturally occurs mainly in protein-rich products that get easily moldy, such as milk products, cheese, meat (liver), fish (herring), eggs, in yeast products and fermented soy products. Fresh protein-rich products are low in tyramine.

The role of the dietitian

We’ll explain what a tyramine-free diet is.  
For people who use litihum, it’s the dietitian's task to ensure that the amount of salt (sodium) in the diet is good.

With what can we help you?  

Having to follow a tyramine-restricted diet is not easy. We’ll look together to see how we can adjust your diet as comfortable as possible, so that it’s also achievable for you. We give you all kinds of practical tips and product information. Because it’s a radical diet, we will support you by coaching you and by having periodic evaluation interviews.
If you use lithium, we can give you different types of advices. You can think of tips for your feeling of thirst.
Furthermore, we can guide you to lose some weight, since many lithium users gain weight.