Dr. Shebani Sethi, who coined the term metabolic psychiatry for her flagship clinic at Stanford, answers 5 questions.
5 Questions: Dr. Shebani Sethi
Challenges and rewards of implementing ketogenic metabolic therapy in mental health
Grounded in Nicole Laurent's clinical expertise, this perspective article delves into the potential of ketogenic therapy for mental health. Nicole highlights the therapeutic promise of this intervention based on hands-on patient interactions.
Frontiers in Nutrition Article
A panel discussion on ketogenic therapy for psychiatric disorders, San Diego, 2023
“While not a panacea, ketogenic therapy can be a cornerstone intervention that allows many people with severe mental illness to treat the root cause of their condition and experience an astonishing, almost unbelievable transformation.”
- Hannah Warren
Why Research Matters
Certified Nutrition Specialist Amy Berger addresses the mechanisms of action of a ketogenic diet related to brain function and asks the question: Why would we NOT prescribe a ketogenic diet to treat brain disorders?
Keto Salt Lake 2022
Resources for offering ketogenic diets to treat a mental health disorder.
Dr. Georgia Ede
Harvard-trained psychiatrist and author of Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind
"Psychiatrists need to start thinking like whole-person doctors, because the brain is part of the body."
Dr. Guido Frank
Psychiatry professor in residence at UC San Diego
"How we live and eat profoundly impacts our body and brain and, thus, our mental health. The way we have changed our eating over the past century has made us more vulnerable to mental difficulties, including eating disorders. The ketogenic diet provides an alternative way of bringing energy to the brain and shows potential in normalizing brain function and behavior to help people feel themselves again."
Dr. Matthew Bernstein
Harvard-trained psychiatrist, Chief Medical Officer, Ellenhorn
“Ketogenic therapy is the most powerful intervention I've seen in my career because everyone who has done it has had benefits. I can’t say that about any medication."
Dr. Cynthia Calkin
Principle Investigator, TRIO-BD study of Metformin for treatment resistant bipolar depression
“Our study reversed insulin resistance using metformin for bipolar depression. The evidence is compelling enough based on our effect sizes and based on the magnitude of improvement in these patients who were otherwise treatment-resistant…This got patients better in six weeks. Why wouldn’t you try it?”
Dr. Lori Calabrese
Harvard-trained psychiatrist in private practice
“Metabolic psychiatry and ketogenic psychiatry harness the latest research on metabolism and energy to help you eat better, feel better, get your body back, lose weight, move more easily, and even taper off some medications.”
Dr. Chris Palmer
Harvard-trained psychiatrist and author of Brain Energy
"The specific psychiatric disorders in which mitochondrial dysfunction has been identified include the following: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, autism, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anorexia nervosa, alcohol use disorder (aka alcoholism), marijuana use disorder, opioid use disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Dementia and delirium, often thought of as neurological illnesses, are also included."
Dr. Jong Rho, UCSD
Chief of Neurology at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego
“The usual paradigm in medicine has been that you start with a drug and if that doesn’t work you add another drug, or many more drugs. I think it would be better for us as a community to look at the brain more holistically. Could a dietary intervention that is metabolism-based affect the processes in the brain that produced the disease to begin with, in which case are you modifying or curing the disease?”
Dr. Shebani Sethi
Founding Director, Stanford Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic
“The approach at my Stanford clinic integrates non-pharmacological metabolic methods - nutritional and lifestyle therapies - with medication. The good news is we are seeing encouraging improvements in mental health after treating metabolic conditions in this way. ”
Nicole Laurent, LMHC
MentalHealthKeto.com
“You do not actually know who you really are or what your brain is capable of if you do not treat underlying factors, including metabolic disorder and nutritional deficiency. There is a treatment option here you have not yet explored that could be life-changing for you.”
