A high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet could be an effective treatment for schizophrenia, a preliminary new study finds.

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness that affects 1.1 percent of the U.S. population. People with schizophrenia behave oddly, experience delusions, and the majority with it become unable to work or function normally in daily life. 

In Australia, researchers performed a study to see whether a ketogenic diet, which is high in fat and low in carbohydrates, might be effective in treating this illness. This type of diet forces the body to burn fat for energy, instead of sugar (glucose), which comes from carbohydrates. The diet has proved helpful in people with epilepsy, although the mechanism is unknown.

The researchers discovered that feeding mice such a diet led to the animals exhibiting fewer behaviors that resemble schizophrenia.

Their paper, published online in Schizophrenia Research, also shows mice on a ketogenic diet weigh less and have lower blood glucose levels than mice fed a normal diet.

The researchers will now test their findings in other animal schizophrenia models in hopes of paving the way for a future clinical trial in humans.