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  • Perspective
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Brain and body energy metabolism and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders

Nature Mental Health volume 3, pages 763–771 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Brain function is critically dependent on energy metabolism. Research over the past half century has provided many insights into energy production and utilization in the brain, and identified ways that it can be improved in brain disorders. A parallel literature indicates that major aberrations exist in brain bioenergetics in neuropsychiatric disorders. Targeting bioenergetic abnormalities may be an efficacious approach to treatment for these conditions. In this Perspective, we provide a survey of the relevant literature on these topics and sketch the outlines of a research agenda to maximize the impact of future research and treatment interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Ana C. Andreazza

  2. Centro de Estudios Científicos Chile, Los Ríos, Chile

    L. Felipe Barros

  3. Ulm University, The German Center for Mental Health and The German Center of Child & Adolescent Health, Ulm, Germany

    Alexander Behnke, Iris-Tatjana Kolassa, Matthias Mack & R. Nehir Mavioglu

  4. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambam Health Campus, Haifa, Israel

    Dorit Ben-Shachar

  5. McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA

    Sabina Berretta, Virginie-Anne Chouinard & Dost Öngür

  6. Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Kim Do

  7. University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah

  8. Central Institute of Mental Health, Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine, Munich, Germany

    Hannelore Ehrenreich

  9. Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany

    Peter Falkai

  10. UC San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Judith Ford

  11. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Zachary Freyberg & Jill R. Glausier

  12. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Javier Gilbert-Jaramillo & Rachel Upthegrove

  13. Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Manu S. Goyal

  14. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Margaret Hahn

  15. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Suzana Herculano-Houzel

  16. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    David Hofmann

  17. University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

    Robert McCullumsmith

  18. Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit/GGZ ingest, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Yuri Milaneschi

  19. University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Anthony J. A. Molina

  20. Stony Brook Medicine/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Lilianne Mujica-Parodi

  21. Laureate Institute of Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA

    Martin Paulus

  22. Institute for Neuroscience, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

    Daria Peleg-Raibstein

  23. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Ben Perry

  24. Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Martin Picard & Melanie Wall

  25. Kings College London, London, UK

    Toby Pillinger & Anthony C. Vernon

  26. Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia

    Caroline Rae

  27. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Douglas Rothman

  28. James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

    Zoltan Sarnyai

  29. Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Johann Steiner

  30. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Corey Weistuch

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  1. Ana C. Andreazza
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  2. L. Felipe Barros
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  7. Kim Do
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  8. Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah
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  23. Yuri Milaneschi
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  24. Anthony J. A. Molina
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  30. Martin Picard
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  31. Toby Pillinger
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  32. Caroline Rae
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  33. Douglas Rothman
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  37. Anthony C. Vernon
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  38. Melanie Wall
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  39. Corey Weistuch
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Conception/design of the paper: A.C.A., L.F.B., A.B., D.B.-S., S.B., V.-A.C., K.D., S.E.T., H.E., P.F., J.F., Z.F., J.G.-J., J.R.G., M.S.G., M.H., S.H.-H., D.H., I.-T.K., M.M., R.N.M., R.M., Y.M., A.J.A.M., L.M.-P., D.Ö., M.P., D.P.-R., B.P., M.P., T.P., C.R., D.R., Z.S, J.S., R.U., A.C.V., M.W., C.W. Analysis/interpretation of evidence: A.C.A., L.F.B., A.B., D.B.-S., S.B., V.-A.C., K.D., S.E.T., H.E., P.F., J.F., Z.F., J.G.-J., J.R.G., M.S.G., M.H., S.H.-H., D.H., I.-T.K., M.M., R.N.M., R.M., Y.M., A.J.A.M., L.M.-P., D.Ö., M.P., D.P.-R., B.P., M.P., T.P., C.R., D.R., Z.S., J.S., R.U., A.C.V., M.W., C.W. Writing parts of the work/critical editing for important intellectual content: A.C.A., L.F.B., A.B., D.B.-S., S.B., V.-A.C., K.D., S.E.T., H.E., P.F., J.F., Z.F., J.G.-J., J.R.G., M.S.G., M.H., S.H.-H., D.H., I.-T.K., M.M., R.N.M., R.M., Y.M., A.J.A.M., L.M.-P., D.Ö., M.P., D.P.-R., B.P., M.P., T.P., C.R., D.R., Z.S., J.S., R.U., A.C.V., M.W., C.W.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dost Öngür.

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Competing interests

M.H. has received consultation fees from Merck and Alkermes. Y.M. has received consulting fees from Noema Pharma AG. D.Ö. has received honoraria from Rapport Therapeutics. M.P. is receiving support from KetoSwiss for a project. R.M. conducts reviews for the schizophrenia grant program at Alkermes. Z.S. is the chief scientist at Ally Bio, a brain health supplement start-up. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Andreazza, A.C., Barros, L.F., Behnke, A. et al. Brain and body energy metabolism and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nat. Mental Health 3, 763–771 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00422-6

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