I’ve written a follow-up post covering a few new meta-studies on veganism/vegetarianism and mental health, including a couple that Michael St. Jules graciously pointed out in the comment section here. The conclusion is probably disappointing in its lack of conclusiveness:
Overall, I think there may be a link between veganism/vegetarianism and depression but there’s no good evidence on what causes the link. I’m vaguely leaning towards there being no link between veganism/vegetarianism and other mental health issues, and am very uncertain about associations between it and fatigue and cognitive function.
“Results indicated that while a plant-based diet was associated with greater use of relationship aggression at the bivariate level, this association did not remain significant when accounting for childhood trauma and aggression victimization.”
So maybe (some) mental health problems are the result of increased trauma and victimization of vegans, or even inherited genetically from abusive parents. But these or demographics or other common causes also make these people more likely to become vegan.
The first author is a vegan, animal rights advocate (not a welfarist) and a trauma psychologist. The study was done for the US government, using a representative US sample.
I’ve written a follow-up post covering a few new meta-studies on veganism/vegetarianism and mental health, including a couple that Michael St. Jules graciously pointed out in the comment section here. The conclusion is probably disappointing in its lack of conclusiveness:
More potential confounders:
“Results indicated that while a plant-based diet was associated with greater use of relationship aggression at the bivariate level, this association did not remain significant when accounting for childhood trauma and aggression victimization.”
https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/24348
So maybe (some) mental health problems are the result of increased trauma and victimization of vegans, or even inherited genetically from abusive parents. But these or demographics or other common causes also make these people more likely to become vegan.
The first author is a vegan, animal rights advocate (not a welfarist) and a trauma psychologist. The study was done for the US government, using a representative US sample.
Thanks! Yeah I guess we need to check in again in another year or two.