Metabolism and diet are linked to root of bipolar depression, say researchers
Iain Campbell, a researcher based at Edinburgh University, has a special perspective on bipolar depression. He lives with the condition and has lost family members who have taken their own lives because of their depression. It remains an intractable, devastating health problem, he says.
More than a million people in the UK have bipolar depression, of whom a third are likely to attempt suicide. Yet the condition’s roots remain unknown – despite significant efforts to understand them.
However, a major new approach to the illness has recently been adopted by psychiatrists to uncover its causes and highlight possible treatments. Rather than viewing bipolar depression as a mood disorder, it should be seen as a metabolic disturbance that can be tackled through diets and other interventions that can change bodily processes.
“We should be thinking of bipolar depression, not as a primary emotional problem, but as a malfunctioning of energy regulation in the body,” said Campbell, who has played a key role in setting up Edinburgh University’s Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry, which opened last week. “It is a very different way of thinking about mental illness.”
