Letter to the Editor of the Baltimore Sun Regarding Cancelled Study of a Ketogenic Diet as a Treatment for Schizophrenia
Re: Health Department Closes Research Wing at Psychiatric Hospital
In response to Angela Roberts’ reporting about Spring Grove Hospital Center last Monday, Dr. Chris Palmer, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and founder of the McLean Hospital Metabolic and Mental Health Program, initiated a petition to challenge Maryland Health Secretary Herrera Scott’s decision to halt a privately funded, inpatient study of a medical ketogenic diet for treating schizophrenia. Dr. Palmer emphasizes that “After treating severe mental illness for almost three decades, I know how desperately we need more effective treatments…”
A ketogenic diet, used since the 1920s to successfully treat epilepsy, is the strongest among several medically powerful interventions that comprise a metabolic approach to treating mental illness. This approach has gained momentum since Dr. Palmer published his book, Brain Energy, in November 2022. In it, Dr. Palmer explains that mental illness is a metabolic illness involving mitochondrial dysfunction. This new understanding makes even serious mental illness highly treatable. It does not preclude medication but can eliminate or drastically reduce the need for it. It shifts the treatment paradigm from lifelong symptom management to total healing.
Given Governor Moore’s goal to “deepen our commitment to affordability and accessibility” to healthcare, and given that a ketogenic diet has the potential to be a safe, inexpensive, effective treatment option, why was a study that had passed thorough ethics and safety reviews stopped?
As Roberts reported, the research was halted because “the health department is moving forward only with federally funded studies at department-run institutions” according to Health Department Spokesman, David McAllister.
To quote Lauren Kennedy West, of Living Well with Schizophrenia, who has recently put her illness into remission using the ketogenic diet:
“If we are only going to allow federally funded studies to occur, it would seem people living with schizophrenia are, for lack of a better word, screwed.” Lauren shares that between 2017 and 2022, the NIMH funded only one drug trial for schizophrenia, despite there being 3.8 million American patients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iPvSUqxkD0&t=37s
Tragically, many with schizophrenia are disabled by their illness and take their lives at significantly higher rates than the general population. According to the Schizophrenia International Research Society, 1 in 58 individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder dies by suicide. My own son who had schizoaffective disorder took his life when a fatal combination of new medications triggered psychosis. Like Lauren, and so many others, he was beautiful, brilliant, and had so much to offer. To reiterate: we need effective treatments.
As I write, the Change.org petition has almost 17,000 signatures. Just as important as the signatures are the testimonials from individuals who have regained their health using a ketogenic diet, as well as the pleas from those who wish to try it but need trained doctors to guide them. Please take the time to explore these testimonials here: Help Protect a Landmark Research Study for Serious Mental Illness and then sign the petition, write to Secretary Herrera Scott and Governor Moore, and urge them to allow this landmark research, which Maryland was bold enough to initiate, to go forward.
Julie King
Mental Health Advocate
Learn more about Dr. Kelly's cancelled study here: https://www.metabolicmind.org/news/the-baltimore-sun-why-is-...
