Metabolic or Nutritional Psychiatry is a relatively new term for a topic that’s been studied for many decades. Recently more formalised as a psychiatric subspecialty, it focusses on identifying and treating metabolic dysfunction in order to improve mental health outcomes. Growing evidence strongly suggests an association between metabolic dysfunction in the brain and mental illness and there is a rapidly expanding field of research that examines how nutritional intervention can reduce or alleviate symptoms.
Many mental illnesses have a higher than general population incidence of cardiovascular diagnoses/death and this was traditionally thought to be driven by factors including a higher incidence of smokers in the cohort and greater propensity for recreational drug use, as well as secondary weight gain associated with many of the anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medications and the consequence of less physical activity due to reduced energy of many mental health conditions.
Research has however demonstrated that metabolic dysfunction is present at greater than general population incidence prior to diagnosis and treatment1, supporting the theory that metabolic dysfunction may be a driver rather than a consequence. Findings from the Swiss Re UK Disability Income Protection Claims Audit provide some evidence of this in the insured cohort, where 94% of claimants with a BMI exceeding 35 (who had been off work for 12 months or more) had either declared mood disorder or depressive symptoms at claim stage, or a pre-existing mental health diagnosis was contained within their health records.