Zhuge WW, Zheng LX, Xu LJ, Zhou SF, Yao HX. Effect of amino acid-balanced diet-based nutritional-psychological intervention on muscle wasting and quality of life in cirrhosis patients. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(11): 109156 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i11.109156]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hai-Xin Yao, Department of Nurse, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, No. 2 Fuxue Lane, Wenzhou 325015, Zhejiang Province, China. yhxing8558@163.com
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Medicine, General & Internal
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Retrospective Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Nov 19, 2025 (publication date) through Nov 3, 2025
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World Journal of Psychiatry
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2220-3206
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Zhuge WW, Zheng LX, Xu LJ, Zhou SF, Yao HX. Effect of amino acid-balanced diet-based nutritional-psychological intervention on muscle wasting and quality of life in cirrhosis patients. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(11): 109156 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i11.109156]
World J Psychiatry. Nov 19, 2025; 15(11): 109156 Published online Nov 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i11.109156
Effect of amino acid-balanced diet-based nutritional-psychological intervention on muscle wasting and quality of life in cirrhosis patients
Wei-Wei Zhuge, Lin-Xiu Zheng, Li-Juan Xu, Si-Fang Zhou, Hai-Xin Yao
Wei-Wei Zhuge, Lin-Xiu Zheng, Li-Juan Xu, Si-Fang Zhou, Hai-Xin Yao, Department of Nurse, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325015, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Zhuge WW and Zheng LX designed the research study; Zhuge WW, Zheng LX, Xu LJ, Zhou SF, and Yao HX performed the research; Zhuge WW and Zhou SF have been involved in drafting the manuscript and all authors have been involved in revising it critically for important intellectual content; Zheng LX and Xu LJ collected and analyzed the date. All authors give final approval of the version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee in Clinical Research of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (Approval No. KY2023-298).
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Xin Yao, Department of Nurse, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, No. 2 Fuxue Lane, Wenzhou 325015, Zhejiang Province, China. yhxing8558@163.com
Received: June 17, 2025 Revised: July 9, 2025 Accepted: September 17, 2025 Published online: November 19, 2025 Processing time: 138 Days and 22.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Patients with liver cirrhosis often experience muscle wasting that significantly affects their quality of life.
AIM
To investigate the effects of comprehensive nutritional and psychological interventions based on an amino acid-balanced diet on muscle wasting and quality of life in patients with liver cirrhosis.
METHODS
A retrospective study of 130 patients with liver cirrhosis (May 2023 to June 2024) was divided into control (conventional treatment, n = 65) and observational groups (conventional + amino acid-balanced nutrition and psychological intervention, n = 65). Anxiety (Self-Rating Anxiety Scale), depression (Self-Rating Depression Scale), lower limb muscle strength, and quality of life (Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire) were assessed pre-intervention, and 3/6 months post-intervention.
RESULTS
At baseline, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of age, sex, etiology of cirrhosis, disease duration, disease severity, or any other measured outcome (P > 0.05). At 3 months and 6 months post-intervention, the observational group exhibited significantly lower Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Self-Rating Depression Scale scores than the control group (P < 0.05), indicating reduced anxiety and depression as well as higher grip strength and increased lower limb muscle strength (P < 0.05). Additionally, the observational group demonstrated superior Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire scores across all domains, reflecting an improved quality of life (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
An amino acid-balanced diet and psychological intervention can effectively alleviate anxiety and depression and improve muscle strength and quality of life in patients with cirrhosis and are worthy of clinical promotion.
Core Tip: This retrospective study of 130 cirrhosis patients compared conventional care (control) vs integrated amino acid-balanced dietary and psychological interventions (observation). At 3 months and 6 months, the observation group exhibited significantly lower anxiety/depression scores, greater grip and lower limb muscle strength, and superior quality of life (Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire scores) vs controls (all P < 0.05). Findings suggest that amino acid-focused nutritional and psychological strategies mitigate muscle wasting and enhance psychosocial and physical outcomes in cirrhosis, warranting clinical adoption.
