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As mental health challenges grow more complex and costly, new solutions are essential. What if one of the most powerful answers isn’t a new drug, but food? What if we’ve been missing an overlooked root cause of and a treatment approach to psychiatric suffering that science is now beginning to confirm?
Baszucki Group is proud to announce the six recipients of the first-ever Metabolic Psychiatry Scholar Award, a new initiative that supports exceptional early-career scientists and clinicians working to advance understanding of the connection between metabolic health and mental health. The award represents a significant step forward in growing the rapidly advancing field of metabolic psychiatry.
Nearly a decade ago Dr. Erin Bellamy began questioning the limits of the current standard of care for inpatient psychiatric treatment. “I was working in an inpatient psychiatric unit and could see that my patients weren’t receiving lasting relief,” she says. Around the same time, new research on low-carbohydrate diets for Type 2 diabetes was making headlines, with some studies pointing to unexpected improvements in mood. These findings led Bellamy to dive into the literature on metabolic connections to psychiatry, where she found a small 1965 study that tested ketogenic diets as treatment for schizophrenia. To her surprise, the trial had never been pursued further. “I thought there had to be something there that warranted a closer look,” said Bellamy. “All I wanted to do was help people improve their mood and symptoms, and live a happy life.”
Dr. Eline Dekeyster’s connection with metabolic psychiatry is personal. While working in the pharmaceutical industry, she began searching for a treatment for her own gastrointestinal issues and was recommended a ketogenic diet. The results were transformative. Not only did her GI symptoms resolve but she recalls “feeling clarity in my mind, and my mood improved and became more stable.” Her interest piqued, she dove into the literature.