Metabolic Neuropsychiatry

This open access book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on energy metabolism in the brain and body in neuropsychiatric disorders and suggests future research directions.
Multiple lines of evidence indicate that energy metabolism is aberrant in the body and brain in individuals with major neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders. Emerging therapeutic interventions aim to improve outcomes in many of these common and severe disorders. To foster interdisciplinary dialogue and to promote informed applications in research, medicine, and public health, the Ernst Strüngmann Forum convened scholars from diverse fields to examine the role of energy metabolism in brain function, the bidirectional association between metabolism in the brain and body, and the future therapeutic potential of treatment interventions that improve metabolism in people with psychiatric disorders.
Synthesizing the interdisciplinary perspectives that emerged from these discussions, the book is organized in four sections:
- Role of Metabolism in Brain Function
- Metabolic Abnormalities in Neuropsychiatric Disorders
- Systemic Metabolic Aspects of Neuropsychiatric Disorders
- Metabolism-Based Therapies
This volume offers insights to researchers and clinicians working in basic, translational, and clinical research in neurology and psychiatry pertinent to mitochondrial function, energy metabolism, human physiology, and treatment development.

Dost Öngür: A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Öngür obtained his M.D./Ph.D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis and psychiatric residency training at the MGH/McLean Adult Psychiatry program. He is currently the William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Psychotic Disorders Division at McLean Hospital.
Dr. Öngür’s research uses neuroimaging approaches to probe brain abnormalities in psychotic disorders as well as clinical studies to understand the trajectories of illness in early phases of these disorders. His work has been continuously funded by the NIH and other sources for over two decades, including a current P50 Center grant focused on early psychosis research. His work using magnetic resonance spectroscopy has documented extensive bioenergetic abnormalities in the brain in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is also an active clinician and an administrator responsible for all clinical services serving patients with psychotic disorders at McLean.
Dr. Öngür has won awards from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School for his teaching and mentoring, and the Kempf and Gralnick Awards from the APA. He has served on Council for professional organizations such as the ACNP, SOBP and SIRS, and serves on the Scientific Council for NARSAD/BBRF. Most recently, he was elected to serve as President for SOBP during 2026-2027. Finally, since 2018 he is the Editor in Chief of JAMA Psychiatry, a premier journal in the field.
Judith M. Ford: Dr. Ford obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. She served on the faculty of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford until 2004, when she left to join the Psychiatry faculty at Yale University School of Medicine. In 2007, she returned to California to join the Psychiatry faculty at the University of California San Francisco.
Dr. Ford’s research uses neuroimaging, including EEG, to understand the biological basis of psychotic disorders. Her work has been continuously funded by the NIH and, more recently, by the Veterans Administration. Her most recent NIH grant funds a mechanistic clinical trial asking if neural network instability in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder can be improved with a very low carbohydrate ketogenic diet.
Dr. Ford won the Middleton Award from the Veterans Administration for her basic neuroscience work elucidating the pathophysiology of serious mental illnesses and the lifetime achievement award from the Society for Psychophysiological Research. She has served on councils for professional organizations such as the ACNP and SOBP, and currently serves on SOBP Council as Past President and on the Board of Directors for the International Organization of Psychophysiology. Since 2007, she has served on the Scientific Council for NARSAD/BBRF, she co-chairs the Young Investigator grant program, and recently became President of the BBRF Scientific Council. She is on the editorial boards of Schizophrenia Bulletin, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience, and Neuroimage Clinical.