World Mental Health Day was established on October 10th 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health. Since then, it has been observed every year with the aim of raising awareness in the global community about critical mental health agendas through collaboration with various partners to take action and create lasting change. To mark World Mental Health Day this year, we are launching the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry's blog! In our inaugural post we introduce the Hub, its key aims and some highlights from our recent launch event.
Introducing the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry
Severe mental illness (including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and severe depression) is an under researched/neglected area, particularly in comparison with common mental health conditions. The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry is one of six new hubs forming the basis of the UKRI Mental Health Platform, an initiative established to address this research gap and the urgent need for more effective diagnosis, interventions and prevention approaches for people with SMI.
Our Hub is focused on understanding the biological and social interface between metabolism and SMI, with a view to developing and testing novel metabolic treatment approaches for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Recent research has shown that individuals living with these conditions are at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality, with a reduced life expectancy of at least 15 years. As such, we investigate mental illness from a ‘whole-body’ perspective, rather than focusing solely on the brain or psychological symptoms, to advance our understanding of the relationship between physical and mental health. Across six workstreams, the we aim to: Â
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Bring together metabolic science and mental health researchers from across disciplines to increase research activity and capacity in metabolic psychiatry.Â
Advance our understanding of the bi-directional relationship between metabolic and mental health.Â
Work closely with people with lived experience to identify, prioritise, develop and test acceptable metabolism-based treatments for SMI.Â
Our research also includes workstreams which focus on genetics, health informatics, metabolomics and data science approaches. Crucially, we work closely with lived experience organisations, including The McPin Foundation and The James Lind Alliance, to ensure our work is grounded in the priorities of those with lived experience.
Hub Highlights: Our Official Launch Day
The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry held its first in-person meeting on Friday 20th September. We were delighted to welcome colleagues from across the UK, as well as our Edinburgh-based teams, to the Playfair Library in Edinburgh, a venue which offered a beautiful backdrop to what was an exciting and productive day (and which provided some respite from the rain and wind outside!)
This meeting marked the official launch of the Hub and of the wider UKRI Mental Health Platform. The morning consisted of a series of presentations and progress reports from each workstream, including an interactive workshop session with workstream 4 co-leads Prof Khalida Ismail and Dr Toby Pillinger which prompted a lively discussion around what metabolic interventions might also improve mental health outcomes in people with SMI, and a presentation from our patient and public engagement co-leads, Dr Annabel Walsh and Dr Iain Campbell, which outlined the ways in which people with lived experience of severe mental illness will be involved across all Hub activities and at every stage of the research process.
In the afternoon, the Director of the UKRI Mental Health Platform, Prof Andrew McIntosh, provided an introduction to the Platform and its five other UK-based Hubs: Complex Emotions, ImmunoMIND, Social Health, Brain and Genomics, and DATAMIND. While each hub will focus on more specific research areas, all are united in their aim of accelerating research into severe mental illness, and there will be some exciting opportunities for cross-hub collaboration in the future.
The launch event concluded with a discussion of overarching Hub themes, including the relationship between sleep, circadian rhythms, reproductive hormones and mental health symptoms, as well as a series of action points to consider moving forward.
Overall, our inaugural meeting was a stimulating and productive event, with some really exciting collaborative and interdisciplinary research on the horizon. We look forward to seeing how our diverse range of activities develop over the coming months, all of which we hope will have a real, meaningful impact on the lives of people with severe mental health issues.
Want to get involved in the Hub's research and activities ?
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Get in touch with us at metabolicpsychiatry@ed.ac.uk Â
Keep an eye out for jobs, upcoming events and opportunities to participate in research on our website and on our social media platforms.
Much more coming soon!
Dr Jessica Campbell, Project Manager
Dr Jessica Campbell is a historian of medicine specialising in histories of madness, psychiatry and mental health. She now works as Project Manager for the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry, one of 5 new research hubs constituting the UKRI Mental Health Platform, a UK-wide initiative seeking to accelerate research into severe mental illness.Â
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