Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry

Lead Research Organisation: University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

Abstract

Metabolic psychiatry is a critical but under-researched area. Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) are at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. There are established bidirectional mechanisms between SMI and metabolic disorders and recent research suggests that metabolic interventions may be therapeutic for SMI.

The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry will have three overarching objectives: a) to drive discovery science in metabolic psychiatry; b) to develop and test novel metabolism-based treatment approaches for SMI in collaboration with people with lived experience of SMI; and c) to build UK-wide capacity for future metabolic psychiatry research and clinical innovation.

We will have four experimental workstreams:

1. Genomics and causal inference: Data from genomics research has identified that adiposity traits are causally related to major depressive disorder. There are also positive genetic correlations between diabetes and SMI but the causal direction of these associations is unclear. Further, there may be important differences in these associations according to ethnicity/ancestry. This workstream will use causal inference methods such as Mendelian randomisation to better understand the shared biology of SMI and metabolic disorders.

2. Health informatics and data science: We will use data linkage within multiple national and international datasets to investigate obesity/diabetes and SMI, with a focus on identifying patterns of comorbidity and predictors of both psychiatric and metabolic outcomes. These datasets include SCI-Diabetes data in Scotland, virtual patient cohorts from the NHS Information Services Division, Edinburgh DataLoch, UK-wide Clinical Practice Research Datalink, and multiple national-level datasets from Denmark.

3. Metabolic biomarkers of clinical outcomes in SMI: We will identify metabolomic biomarkers of SMI and conduct a 12-month prospective study to assess how changes in metabolic profile relate to clinical and functional outcomes. This workstream will deploy several innovative data collection methods, including continuous monitoring of metabolic biomarkers, radar-based and actigraph assessments of sleep and circadian rhythms, ecological momentary assessments of mental state and state-of-the-art metabolomics analyses.

4. Co-developing and testing novel metabolism-based interventions for SMI: Working closely with the James Lind alliance and The McPin Foundation, we will co-develop and assess the acceptability and therapeutic potential of a range of metabolic interventions as novel treatments for SMI, including digital approaches, chrononutrition (time restricted eating), the ketogenic diet, low carb diets, metformin and GLP1 receptor antagonists. This work will prioritise and co-design future clinical trials of metabolic interventions for SMI.

Two additional cross-cutting workstreams will feed into the four experimental workstreams:

5. Data analysis and open science workstream: We will develop and test statistical approaches - including dynamic structural equation modelling and machine learning - for each of the workstreams above and create a data curation and data sharing platform to maximise the open science opportunities of this work.

6. Patient and public involvement, engagement and dissemination workstream: The McPin Foundation will help with each of the workstreams to ensure that people with lived experience of SMI are at the heart of this work, from experimental design to dissemination and knowledge exchange activities.

Overall, the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry represents an innovative programme of lived experience involvement, discovery science and clinical research within an area that is extremely high priority for people with SMI and their families. It fills an important gap in the current research landscape and will place the UK at the forefront of future metabolic psychiatry research and innovation.

Technical Summary

Metabolic psychiatry is a critical but under-researched area. Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) are at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. There are established bidirectional mechanisms between SMI and metabolic disorders and recent research suggests that some metabolic interventions may be therapeutic for SMI. The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry will have four experimental workstreams: 1. Genomics and causal inference within large-scale genetic datasets to better understand the shared biology of SMI and metabolic disorders; 2. Health informatics and data science approaches within multiple routine linked healthcare datasets to investigate the interface between obesity/diabetes and SMI (with a focus on identifying patterns of comorbidity and predictors of health outcomes); 3. Identifying metabolic biomarkers of clinical outcomes in SMI within a 12-month prospective study that will also assess how changes in metabolic profile and sleep and circadian factors relate to clinical and functional outcomes; and 4. Co-developing and testing novel metabolism-based interventions for SMI such as digital approaches, time-restricted eating, the ketogenic diet, low carb diets, metformin and GLP1 receptor agonists. Two additional cross-cutting workstreams will feed into each stage of the four experimental workstreams: 5. Data analysis and open science; and 6. Patient and public involvement, engagement and dissemination activities (in collaboration with by The James Lind Alliance and The McPin Foundation). Overall, The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry represents an innovative programme of discovery science, clinical research and lived experience collaboration at the interface between mental illness and metabolism.
 
Description Byres Hub Community Event on Metabolic and Mental Health, University of Glasgow 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Dr Rona Strawbridge hosted a community engagement event at the Byres Community Hub in Glasgow which explored the links between mental health, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. Rona and Byres Community Hub members were joined by participants from Kidney Research UK MsMissMrs, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland and COPE Scotland for a discussion about the overlap between mental illness and metabolic conditions and what kind of things people might want to know more about in terms of this relationship.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/healthwellbeing/byrescommunityhub/
 
Description Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry Blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Hub Blog was launched in October 2024 to coincide with World Mental Health Day. Posts aimed at a general audience thus far include:
• 'Introducing the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry'
• 'In Conversation with Joanne Kenney' (Researcher on Workstream 5)
• Baszucki Trials Meeting 2024: The Impact of Lived Experience in Metabolic Psychiatry Research
• 'In Conversation with Christina Steyn' (PhD Student on Workstream 3)
The central aim of the blog is to raise awareness of Hub activities, disseminate research/ updates in an accessible way to a wide audience. Blog posts and the website in general have resulted in requests for further information about the Hub, requests for collaboration and requests to participate in Hub activities, both from people with lived experience and researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024,2025
URL https://www.metabolicpsychiatryhub.com/blog
 
Description Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry Launch Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry held its official launch event on Friday 20th September at the Playfair Library in Edinburgh. This meeting marked the official launch of the Hub and of the wider UKRI Mental Health Platform. Members of the MHP coordinating team, of the Hub's six workstreams and of the International Advisory Board were invited to attend. We were delighted to be joined by colleagues from across the UK as well as our Edinburgh-based teams. The morning consisted of a series of presentations/ progress reports from each workstream and the afternoon an introduction to the Mental Health Platform. The day concluded with a discussion around key Hub policy documents and Hub communications, a summary of overarching Hub themes and a series of action points to consider moving forward. As part of this event, we coordinated several online and media-based communication engagement activities. Two organic posts on X and 3 on LinkedIn resulted in good engagement and a significant increase in website activity. Several hub team members created their own posts about the launch with @HubMetPsych tagged, which increased traffic to the Hub social platforms, and our posts were boosted by the support of the Mental Health Platform Team and their accounts. Posts by the Hub and MHP were also reshared on X by Metabolic Mind, The Baszucki Group, all partner Universities (Glasgow, Exeter, Bristol, KCL), The Lister Institute, Mind Your Science, and a number of individual followers including those working/ interested in the field from across the globe.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Hub has increased engagement with the public and people with lived experience online. The Hub website was revamped in line with Mental Health Platform guidelines an currently has 396 subscribers from across the world. Engagement has also steadily increased over the year on our social media platforms. As of 5th March 2025 we have:
• LinkedIn (371 followers)
• X (384 followers)
• BlueSky (40 followers)
• Instagram (52 followers)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL http://www.metabolicpsychiatryhub.com
 
Description Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry and UKRI Mental Health Platform Launch 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Together with UKRI, the Mental Health Platform Coordinating team created a press release and asked college press team to reach out to contacts - they advised STV. An Interviewer and camera operator filmed interviews with Prof Andrew McIntosh and Dr Iain Campbell (both researchers on the Hub) for 6pm STV Edinburgh & East news. Viewing figures not available specifically for this programme, but STV is the most watched peak time TV channel in Scotland and STV's broadcast channel reaches 3.2 million viewers per month in Scotland.
STV also uploaded the clip to their YouTube, which has 55.4K subscribers:. The MHP team shared clip-on social media Monday 23rd September 2024 which was reshared by the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry on social platforms.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Hub for Metabolic Special Lecture with Guest Speaker Dr Benjamin Perry (University of Birmingham) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact On 4th March 2025, we hosted a Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry Special Lecture with guest speaker and Hub affiliate member Dr Benjamin Perry. This hybrid event 'Cardiometabolic Risk Prediction in Early Psychosis: Tackling Inequities' was open to the public as well as researchers and clinicians and attended by 50 in person colleagues and over 100 online participants. The talk was intended to raise awareness of research in the field of metabolic psychiatry to a broad audience, and to foster/ strengthen collaboration between the Hub and external stakeholders. The lecture has been recorded and is available on the Hub YouTube channel. Hub special lectures will continue to take place on a quarterly basis.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2025
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFa1Gdo9oE
 
Description Observer Article on Bipolar/ Metabolic Psychiatry in Edinburgh 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An article written by Rob McKie for the Observer published on Saturday 21st September 2024 on recent research at UoE, including work being conducted by the Hub, resulted in increased engagement with Hub social platforms on X and LinkedIn. Dr Iain Campbell and Prof Danny Smith were quoted in the article, which was shared by the Hub, UKRI Mental Health Platform, Baszucki Group, Metabolic Mind, Lister Institute among others. The Hub website also saw increased traffic coinciding with the publication of the article, and several enquiries from researchers/ people with lived experience were received.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/21/metabolism-diet-linked-bipolar-depression-scientists...