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Could diet cause psychosis?

To add to Dr. Nasrallah’s New Year’s resolutions (“New Year’s resolutions to help our patients,” From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, January 2010), I suggest some fresh, out-of-the-box thinking about the basic causes of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It strikes me that 52 years ago, before I graduated from medical school, we knew that heart attacks, strokes, and many common cancers—breast, prostate, colon, etc.—were caused by our high-fat diet. We received no advice then or since about changing to a completely different diet. I wonder if it’s possible that our epidemic of psychoses also might be caused by the miserable diet we feed ourselves and our children. In the psychiatric literature, I have not seen a good comparison study of populations who follow a different diet. In Prevent and reverse heart disease, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., MD, of the Cleveland Clinic states that in the genesis of heart disease “diet trumps genetics.” I wonder, is the brain any different?

James M. Donahue, MD
Indianapolis, IN

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To add to Dr. Nasrallah’s New Year’s resolutions (“New Year’s resolutions to help our patients,” From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, January 2010), I suggest some fresh, out-of-the-box thinking about the basic causes of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It strikes me that 52 years ago, before I graduated from medical school, we knew that heart attacks, strokes, and many common cancers—breast, prostate, colon, etc.—were caused by our high-fat diet. We received no advice then or since about changing to a completely different diet. I wonder if it’s possible that our epidemic of psychoses also might be caused by the miserable diet we feed ourselves and our children. In the psychiatric literature, I have not seen a good comparison study of populations who follow a different diet. In Prevent and reverse heart disease, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., MD, of the Cleveland Clinic states that in the genesis of heart disease “diet trumps genetics.” I wonder, is the brain any different?

James M. Donahue, MD
Indianapolis, IN

To add to Dr. Nasrallah’s New Year’s resolutions (“New Year’s resolutions to help our patients,” From the Editor, Current Psychiatry, January 2010), I suggest some fresh, out-of-the-box thinking about the basic causes of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It strikes me that 52 years ago, before I graduated from medical school, we knew that heart attacks, strokes, and many common cancers—breast, prostate, colon, etc.—were caused by our high-fat diet. We received no advice then or since about changing to a completely different diet. I wonder if it’s possible that our epidemic of psychoses also might be caused by the miserable diet we feed ourselves and our children. In the psychiatric literature, I have not seen a good comparison study of populations who follow a different diet. In Prevent and reverse heart disease, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., MD, of the Cleveland Clinic states that in the genesis of heart disease “diet trumps genetics.” I wonder, is the brain any different?

James M. Donahue, MD
Indianapolis, IN

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Current Psychiatry - 09(03)
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Could diet cause psychosis?
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