Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet(psychologytoday.com)

33 points by daveytea 6 years ago | 14 comments

Ketogenic diets have been prescribed for people with seizure disorders ("epilepsy") for decades. Given some psychological disorders are also treated with anti-convulsants, it's speculative, but a high fat diet causes a lot of physiological and hormonal (testosterone/cortisol leveks) changes that the possibility of it affecting brain function doesn't seem ridiculous.

Someone with high anxiety who has not tried strenuous exercise with a high fat/protein low carb diet would seem to be leaving opportunity on the table as well.

Kusse 6 years ago |

I feel like ketogenic diet is the holy grail of health. Having followed a "relaxed" version only 3 months now and I can honestly say that I have never felt better. Depression, anxiety, motivation, sleep, fitness has all improved for the better.

Having said that, the "diet" really makes you realize how hard it is to avoid any kind of sugars in food, if you dont prepare it yourself. It is insane!

astazangasta 6 years ago |

This is garbage. Contrary to popular belief, remission is in fact common in schizophrenia, so n=2 demonstrates precisely nothing. In addition, there is no evidence that schizophrenics have any brain dysfunction other than that caused by taking neuroleptics for decades.

perl4ever 6 years ago | |

It's debatable how much antipsychotics help, but people do become ill in the first place, and do develop brain damage over time independently of the drugs. Psychosis is natural and not healthy.

The problem I see is not that there is a vast conspiracy to push useless drugs, but that the drug industry inherently is geared towards developing the "minimum viable product" which means anything that has a just barely statistically significant effect in studies. Which means everything new is just possibly useful, but quite possibly not.

kdmccormick 6 years ago | |

Yikes. This case study isn't in any way conclusive, but it also doesn't claim to be. You need a better reason than that to write it off as "garbage".

I have bipolar disorder. My uncle had schizophrenia. YEARS without an episode AND without medication is an exciting prospect for many people, including myself. I don't understand why you are so negative towards preliminary findings that may point to a route of treatment that doesn't require neuroleptics, which as you correctly point out, can cause cognitive impairment.

rhinoceraptor 6 years ago | | |

Also, it's been known almost 100 years that the ketogenic diet has neuroprotective attributes. There's strong evidence of its efficacy for epilepsy, and mounting evidence for all sorts of other conditions.

itcheeze 6 years ago | |

I'm inclined to agree. That being said, having been prescribed zyprexa for type 1 bipolar, anything that leads treatment away from the standard trope of what in my opinion is nothing other than a strong off-label tranquilizer for these symptoms is a positive thing in some regard.

perl4ever 6 years ago | | |

I wonder if Wellbutrin/Zyban/bupropion is underutilized. It's well known that people with chronic mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, tend to smoke, as it seems like nicotine helps somehow. So I wonder if a "quit-smoking" drug is really a good treatment, because it enhances the sensitivity of the brain to whatever normally stimulates those receptors.

However, I know a lot of times this and similar drugs seem to stimulate impulsive, almost manic behavior when they are first started. A family member of an acquaintance took Chantix to quit smoking and nearly wrecked his life through uncharacteristically reckless behavior.

DoreenMichele 6 years ago |

It is well known that people with schizophrenia are three times more likely to develop diabetes.

Well. That's significant.

Diabetes is linked to inflammation. So are a lot of brain issues.

I actually came here to note that the brain is 60% fat, so it seems reasonable to assume that the amount and kind of dietary fat would matter a while lot for a wide variety of brain related issues.

perl4ever 6 years ago | |

Popular antipsychotics cause weight gain and eventual diabetes. I don't think that's obscure or controversial, so it seems weird to say "people with schizophrenia are three times more likely to develop diabetes" out of context. Like, are we talking about a large population of untreated people?

DoreenMichele 6 years ago | | |

A longer outtake from the paragraph I was quoting:

It is well known that people with schizophrenia are three times more likely to develop diabetes. A common debate in the field is whether the antipsychotic medications, which are known to cause weight gain and diabetes, are to blame. Recent research suggests that this is not the entire explanation. Even people newly diagnosed with schizophrenia appear to already have insulin resistance, even though most don’t yet have diabetes. This means that their brains may not be getting enough energy from glucose. Other brain studies have found metabolic abnormalities, such as higher levels of oxidative stress and inflammation as well.