Dr. Chris Palmer: A Novel Metabolic Theory of Mental Disorders

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Given that mental health treatment outcomes have not improved dramatically over time despite a wealth of research, novel psychotherapies and pharmaceutical compounds, it is important that new theories around mental disorders continue to be identified and explored. Harvard psychiatrist & researcher, Dr. Chris Palmer, joins us for a discussion of some of the core themes in his new book Brain Energy, which paints the picture of a potential “unifying” underlying metabolic mechanism with respect to mental disorders that might allow better understanding and treatment of brain illness. In this conversation we cover:

• the client journey that led Dr. Palmer to want to write this book
• an overview of Dr. Palmer's conceptualization of mental disorders, including differenting between expected and adaptive responses to stressors vs. true brain disorders
• a review of some of the findings that have suggested a link between metabolic processes and the evolution & maintenance of mental disorders and how this model accommodates comorbidity
• the importance of neuronal activation - both over- and under-activation - in Dr. Palmer's model
• the risk factors that contribute to developing a metabolic disorder within the brain
• implications of the Brain Energy model with respect to why established pharmacotherapy (or even psychotherapy) might actually work
• medical & self-help treatments that this model suggests might be helpful, including the role of supplements & medications which impact upon metabolism

Host note: We will be offering a 6 week essentials of CBT workshop that I will be facilitating beginning March 24, 2023. For more information and registration, please visit: https://www.ottawacbt.ca/news Please come join us!
Dr. Christopher M. Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For over 25 years, he has held administrative, educational, research, and clinical roles in psychiatry at Harvard. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic. Most recently, he has proposed a comprehensive theory of what causes mental illness, integrating existing theories and research into one unifying theory—the brain energy theory of mental illness.
https://brainenergy.com/