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First Keto RCT for Serious Mental Illness: Hear from the Study Authors
Description
Can ketogenic therapy improve symptoms, cognition, and metabolic health in people living with serious mental illness?
In this episode of Metabolic Mind, Dr. Bret Scher speaks with Dr. Judy Ford, Juliette Kyner (previously Juliette Ward), and Dr. Shebani Sethi about the first-ever randomized controlled trial of a ketogenic diet intervention in individuals living with schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar I disorder with psychotic features.
The conversation explores what made this trial possible, from prepared meals and coaching to the structured support that helped participants stay engaged. It also highlights encouraging four-month findings across metabolic health, cognition, depressive symptoms, and both positive and negative psychiatric symptoms.
They discuss:
- Why this trial is an important step for metabolic psychiatry
- How participants adhered to a ketogenic diet with structured support
- What changed in metabolic health markers like BMI, A1C, and HOMA-IR
- Why cognitive improvements were especially meaningful
- How positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and depressive symptoms changed over time
- What family members noticed as participants re-engaged with daily life
- Why future studies may need to be longer, larger, and more mechanistic
This trial marks an important step for metabolic psychiatry and points to the need for larger, longer, fully controlled studies that can better clarify how ketogenic interventions may affect metabolic, cognitive, and psychiatric outcomes.
👉 Learn more about this trial on our study page: First-Ever Randomized Controlled Trial of Ketogenic Diet in Schizophrenia-Spectrum and Bipolar I Disorder
🔎 Have questions about how to apply metabolic therapies effectively? Submit them at metabolicmind.org/questions to be featured in a future Metabolic Mailbag episode.
#MetabolicMind #KetogenicTherapy #Schizophrenia #BipolarDisorder
Expert Featured:
Dr. Judy Ford
Juliette Kyner, Research Assistant at UCSF
Dr. Shebani Sethi
Resources Mentioned:
Metabolic Improvements with a Ketogenic Diet Correlate with Symptom Improvement in Psychosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Free CME Clinician Trainings:
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