Dr. Christopher Palmer, MD

Dr. Chris Palmer, MD is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Founder and Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program and Director of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital. Author.

Dr. Palmer has been pioneering the use of the ketogenic diet and its applications in psychiatry.

• Focused on treatment-resistant mental illnesses including mood, psychotic, and personality disorders.
• Treatment includes psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and complementary and alternative treatments.
• Published case studies, pilot clinical trials, and is actively conducting research in this area.

 Medical Presentations Video

• Overview - What Causes Mental Illness? How Metabolism Connects the Bio-Psycho-Social Risk Factors.  October 2024.
• Others

Book - Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health--and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More

Mitochondrial dysfunction or dysregulation ties everything that we already know about #mental & #metabolic disorders together in a coherent way. #Mitochondria affect development of the brain, the expression of different genes, synapse formation + destruction, + brain activity.

Source: Chris Palmer MD's tweet 12/7/22

• Brain Energy.com
  • "Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain."
  • "Palmer also sheds light on the new treatment pathways this theory opens up—which apply to all mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, alcoholism, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, autism, and schizophrenia."
• Healthy mitochondria drive mental and metabolic health.
• Behavioral and nutritional interventions that improve mitochondrial health improve mental & metabolic health.  Examples: Improving sleep, physical activity, relationships, purpose in life, mindfulness, correcting nutrient deficiencies and real, whole food. Reducing harmful substances, chronic stress, sugar & ultra-processed foods. Taken together these are also referred to as lifestyle interventions.
• Serious, treatment-resistant conditions, depression, and psychosis can benefit from therapeutic nutritional ketosis from medical ketogenic diet therapies (high in saturated-fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrates).
• The hard work of lifestyle interventions unlikely to be replaced with a pill. Supplements and pharmacology can be life saving.  Tailor interventions to each patient's bio-individuality.
• Published November 2022. Recommend the hard cover or audio book.  The Kindle version had some complaints about line breaks.  The hard cover gives access to a well researched bibliography for each chapter.  The audio book is read by the author and there are no charts or figures which you'll miss out on.

Podcasts with Dr. Chris Palmer summarizing Brain Energy

• • The Tim Ferriss Show #633, Chris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School - Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More. - Their 2 hour discussion includes personal stories from each.  Their show notes have an awesome set of links, including our own Doris’s chronic schizophrenia remission brings hope.
  • Huberman Lab - Dr. Chris Palmer: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health. Professor Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology at Stanford Medical School.  Their 3 hour discussion includes mechanisms of action aimed at lay people & clinicians alike.
  • Other podcasts

Articles by Chris Palmer

• for Charlie Foundation and his Psychology Today column, Advancing Psychiatry
• Medical Journals
• Articles about Dr. Palmer's work

Awards

Winner of a prestigious Metabolic Mind grant in fall 2022

Dr. Palmer's clinician directory

Therapeutic Ketogenic Dietitians (TKD) 

Related sources

Metabolic psychiatry experts (In addition to Dr. Palmer)

• Psychiatrist Dr. Shebani Sethi, MD, ABOM Stanford University School of Medicine
• Psychiatrist Dr. Georgia Ede, MD - Her site includes a directory of practitioners trained in Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health
• Metabolic Mind - Not-for-profit building a mental - metabolic movement

Training for practitioners

• Ketogenic Therapeutics Mastery Courses for Practitioners - By respected Denise Potter & Beth Zupec-Kania, both respected Registered Dietitians  from the pediatric epilepsy world. Includes nutritional interventions to maintain therapeutic ketosis
• Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health - by psychiatrist Georgia Ede, MD & Diagnosis Diet.  Includes deprescribing psychiatric medications.

Related blog posts from Metabolic Multiplier

• How to build my ketogenic therapy treatment team
• Best resources for carb-reduction therapies
• Ketogenic diet helps twins improve schizophrenic symptoms
• Save time! 3 metabolic health research portals - Help you review the published scientific literature for yourself