News & Views

Read the latest from Baszucki Group and its partners.

Erin Bellamy, PhD: Scaling Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy for Mental Health

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.”

Eline Dekeyster, PhD: Working Toward Making Metabolic Psychiatry Widely Available

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.

Gabriel Fries, MSc, PhD: A Novel Approach to a Devastating Psychiatric Outcome

For Dr. Gabriel Fries, psychiatry has always been more than a field of study—it is a deeply personal calling. His older brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when they were both very young, and watching his brother’s struggles left an indelible mark. “Just being his brother made clear to me the limitations of the treatments that exist,” Fries says. “It shaped my passion for research, which isn’t always an easy career, but it gave me a sense of purpose. It was a way to help, even indirectly.”

Fabiano Gomes, MD, MSc, PhD: Building a Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic for the Future

Dr. Fabiano Gomes has been interested in the link between physical and mental health since his early years of medical training. “I was struck by how many of my patients were gaining weight, developing diabetes, and facing vascular problems alongside their mental health challenges,” says Gomes. That concern led him to focus on insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in people with bipolar disorder, beginning a line of research in 2005 that he carried through his postgraduate studies. “I wanted to understand how these medical comorbidities were influencing the course of illness—and why outcomes were so much worse for patients with metabolic issues.”

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