The Weight of Mental Illness: Why treating the body may help the mind

In this recent ‘Maudsley Talks' lecture, Hub Co-Investigator Dr Toby Pillinger discusses the growing importance of metabolic health in severe mental illness.

Dr Toby Pillinger is an honorary consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and a Clinical Senior Lecturer at King’s College London, you can find him on our Team page.

Speaking at this Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust lecture, he discusses that data shows people with serious mental illnesses die approximately 20 years earlier than those without serious mental illness. The most common cause for this is cardiovascular disease. Many of the medications that transform mental health can also profoundly affect body weight and metabolism, leaving patients caught between mental recovery and physical decline. The lecture explores obesity and cardiometabolic disease in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the metabolic effects of psychiatric medications, barriers to accessing weight management services, and emerging treatments such as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

The talk also highlights research from the UKRI Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry and discusses how a greater understanding of the links between metabolism and mental health could help shape future models of care.

You can watch the full lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCr5_rZRd0I