Example: I want to understand statistics well enough to read research papers without getting lost.
What do you already know?
Be honest, zero judgment. Example: I passed a stats class ten years ago and remember almost nothing.
Where will you use it?
Example: I want to understand how sleep affects blood sugar.
Your wishes
✦ You have 1 wish. Granting a course spends one.
OmniTaughtA
Lv 1Lv 270 XP to go
Metabolic Psychiatry: Energy and the Mind · Lesson 1 of 17 · 8 min
The Brain's Energy Bill
Why a small organ runs up a large bill, and what metabolic psychiatry does and does not claim
0:00 / 8:00
1x1.25x1.5x
Skip lunch on a long, busy afternoon and notice what changes. Maybe the words come a little slower, or a small annoyance feels bigger than it should. Nobody needs a study to notice a moment like that. Researchers have measured something related, though: even mild low blood sugar affects thinking, and so does a 10% drop in the oxygen pressure of the blood, though the researchers say the exact size of that effect is hard to pin down (Rae et al., 2025).
A small organ with a large bill
The brain's share of body weight and of the body's energy use (a longer bar is a bigger share)
Where the brain's energy goes, by two estimates (a longer section is a bigger share)
In the average adult, the brain makes up about 2% of body weight. Yet it accounts for about 20% of the oxygen, and so the calories, that the body uses (Raichle & Gusnard, 2002). That figure comes from a commentary in a peer-reviewed journal that summarized earlier measurements, and the 2025 brain energy chapter repeats it (Rae et al., 2025). It is an average for adults. In childhood the brain's use of oxygen and blood flow runs well above adult levels (Rae et al., 2025).
Where does all that energy go? A working group of brain energy researchers reports that about 85 to 90% of it pays for signalling between nerve cells, even at rest. That leaves about 10 to 15% for growth, upkeep and repair (Rae et al., 2025). Mental tasks usually raise energy use in the busy regions by only 5 to 10%, and the group describes the resting brain as already close to the limit of its budget. Another chapter of the same report gives a lower signalling figure, about 70 to 80% (Öngür, 2025), so treat the exact number as an estimate.
That working group met at the Ernst Strüngmann Forum, a scientific meeting held from 12 to 17 May 2024. Its report, published in 2025 as the book Metabolic Neuropsychiatry, is one of the main sources for this course.
Quiz now, while it is fresh. 8 questions, no timer.
OmniTaughtA
The Brain's Energy Bill
The one thing worth keeping
Your most valuable takeaway · +30 XP
What is the single most valuable thing you take from this lesson? One sentence is plenty.
The most valuable thing here is...
One sentence earns you 30 XP, the moment you save it. It goes into your notes for this lesson too.
OmniTaughtA
←1/8
OmniTaughtA
Lv 1Lv 270 XP to go
Congrats, perfect!
Metabolic Psychiatry: Energy and the Mind · The Brain's Energy Bill
100%
+75 XP · first pass
Nothing missed. Six flashcards joined your review deck.
Level up
You've just reached Level 2!
Student
115 XP
Your story · chapter 2
The town is gone behind the trees and the map is already wrong. You correct it as you walk, boots in muck to the ankle, ink going everywhere.
On this rung · 2 rewards
New card back
Summitfor your review deck
New card back
Northern Lightsfor your review deck
Next · Level 3 Reader
135 XP to go
OmniTaughtA
For counselors
More on the counseling shelf
DxClinical Recognition15 lessons · For Counselors
RxPsych Meds for Therapists16 lessons · For Counselors
§Ethics & Law for Counselors12 lessons · For Counselors
8NCE / CPCE Prep and Practice Tests38 lessons · For Counselors
+Crisis & Suicide Prevention10 lessons · For Counselors
Every course here is included. One account, the whole shelf.
Learn how metabolism and mental health connect, and what the research really shows.
or learn anything with Custom Courses tailored to your needs.
I have found OmniTaught to be a wonderful learning tool, I find myself learning a lot and quickly. The app is easy to pick up and go! It provides TONS of courses and they all seem to be up to date with current materials.
Devin M.
How it works
Create a custom course, or pick from our library.
OmniTaught5 day streakA
Lv 9Lv 101,200 XP to go
Topics
Pick as many as you like. Each one is built the same way: short lessons, drills, and review that remembers what you forget.
Topic Genie ✦MAKE ONE
Not in the library? Wish for it and the Genie builds the course: lessons, quizzes, flashcards
Short lessons.
OmniTaught5 day streakA
Lv 9Lv 101,200 XP to go
Metabolic Psychiatry: Energy and the Mind · Lesson 1 of 17 · 8 min
The Brain's Energy Bill
Why a small organ runs up a large bill, and what metabolic psychiatry does and does not claim
Skip lunch on a long, busy afternoon and notice what changes. Maybe the words come a little slower, or a small annoyance feels bigger than it should. Nobody needs a study to notice a moment like that. Researchers have measured something related, though: even mild low blood sugar affects thinking, and so does a 10% drop in the oxygen pressure of the blood, though the researchers say the exact size of that effect is hard to pin down (Rae et al., 2025).
A small organ with a large bill
The brain's share of body weight and of the body's energy use (a longer bar is a bigger share)Each bar stands for the whole body of an average adult. The brain is about 2 percent of body weight, yet it accounts for about 20 percent of the oxygen, and so the calories, that the body uses (Raichle & Gusnard, 2002).Where the brain's energy goes, by two estimates (a longer section is a bigger share)One working group reports that about 85 to 90 percent of the brain's energy pays for signalling between nerve cells, even at rest, leaving about 10 to 15 percent for growth, upkeep and repair (Rae et al., 2025). Another chapter of the same report gives a lower signalling figure, about 70 to 80 percent (Öngür, 2025), so the exact number is an estimate.
In the average adult, the brain makes up about 2% of body weight. Yet it accounts for about 20% of the oxygen, and so the calories, that the body uses (Raichle & Gusnard, 2002). That figure comes from a commentary in a peer-reviewed journal that summarized earlier measurements, and the 2025 brain energy chapter repeats it (Rae et al., 2025). It is an average for adults. In childhood the brain's use of oxygen and blood flow runs well above adult levels (Rae et al., 2025).
Where does all that energy go? A working group of brain energy researchers reports that about 85 to 90% of it pays for signalling between nerve cells, even at rest. That leaves about 10 to 15% for growth, upkeep and repair (Rae et al., 2025). Mental tasks usually raise energy use in the busy regions by only 5 to 10%, and the group describes the resting brain as already close to the limit of its budget. Another chapter of the same report gives a lower signalling figure, about 70 to 80% (Öngür, 2025), so treat the exact number as an estimate.
That working group met at the Ernst Strüngmann Forum, a scientific meeting held from 12 to 17 May 2024. Its report, published in 2025 as the book Metabolic Neuropsychiatry, is one of the main sources for this course.
What energy means inside a cell
Inside a cell, energy means fuel turned into a form the cell can spend. The spendable form is a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Cells make most of their ATP inside mitochondria, tiny structures that the next lesson covers in detail. The brain's fuel arrives from the blood as glucose, a sugar, along with the oxygen needed to use it.
The brain has a particular weak point here. It stores little fuel of its own and depends on a constant supply of glucose and oxygen, which makes it unusually vulnerable when that supply is disrupted (Öngür, 2025). A brief shortfall in the blood reaches the brain quickly, because there is little in reserve to cover it.
Which jobs might feel the squeeze
If the brain runs near its limit, which mental jobs strain first? One working group has proposed an answer for research to test. It describes a cluster it calls metabolic psychopathology: low motivation, loss of pleasure, problems with thinking, and changes in appetite and sleep, tied to disturbed metabolism (Pillinger et al., 2025). That is a proposal, not a diagnosis a doctor can give.
The brain energy group adds a second proposal. Children and older adults may have the smallest energy reserve, which could leave less for repair under long-term stress. The group calculated those reserves from a model, and for children it assumed the adult maximum rather than measuring it (Rae et al., 2025).
Key idea
The brain spends a large, steady share of the body's energy and keeps little in reserve. That makes energy supply a reasonable place to look for clues about mental illness. A reasonable place to look is still only a place to look.
What metabolic psychiatry is
Metabolic psychiatry is the study of how the energy systems of the body and brain connect with mental illness. Researchers have reported energy-metabolism changes in depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The findings come from brain tissue studied after death, from cells grown from patients, and, more tentatively, from living patients (Öngür, 2025).
The researchers closest to this work are careful about what those findings mean. Dost Öngür, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, co-edited the 2025 report. He argues that simple one-way models of cause and effect are unlikely to fit. He proposes treating metabolic abnormality as one hallmark of mental illness, a single feature among several, borrowing the idea from cancer research (Öngür, 2025).
A working group in the same report reached a similar view. Metabolic abnormalities are not in themselves a sufficient cause of psychiatric illness, it concluded, and are better seen as vulnerability factors or triggers (Berretta et al., 2025).
The overclaim to avoid
The overclaim says metabolic psychiatry has shown that mental illness is really a metabolic disease with a food-based cure. The field's own scholarly report says something smaller. Metabolism is one part of the picture, and the direction of cause is unknown and may differ between people (Hofmann et al., 2025). Öngür warns that the size of the unmet need creates pressure toward unrealistic hopes, then disappointment and lost public trust (Öngür, 2025).
The evidence habit this course uses
Every study in this course comes with a label, because the kind of study decides what it can show. Here are the labels, from the kinds that can test cause to the kinds that cannot:
Randomized controlled trial (RCT): people are assigned by chance to a treatment or a comparison. It is the strongest single test of whether something causes a change.
Meta-analysis: a pooled analysis of many studies. It is only as strong as the studies inside it.
Uncontrolled pilot: everyone gets the treatment and there is no comparison group, so hope, attention and time can explain changes.
Chart review: researchers look back at the records of routine care.
Observational study: researchers measure people and follow them without changing anything. It shows a link, not a cause.
Expert opinion: experienced people summarizing what they know, which is not new data.
Two cautions from the field's methods experts apply to every lesson. Small pilot studies give imprecise estimates of how big an effect is, and those estimates can be too optimistic (Wall & Pavlicova, 2025). Observational data alone cannot settle which way cause runs, and settling it usually takes an intervention (Hofmann et al., 2025). When this course says a finding is linked to something, the word is chosen on purpose.
Where the evidence stands
Broad agreement: the adult brain is about 2% of body weight and uses about 20% of the body's energy (Raichle & Gusnard, 2002), a figure the field's 2025 report also uses (Rae et al., 2025). The report presents it as long established that the brain stores little fuel and depends on a steady supply of glucose and oxygen (Öngür, 2025). Still debated: whether energy problems help cause mental illness or follow from it. The field's main report treats them as vulnerability factors or triggers, not a sufficient cause (Berretta et al., 2025). Not yet known: which way cause runs, and whether it runs the same way in different people (Hofmann et al., 2025).
In the clinic
Counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists can all use the evidence labels when a client brings in a headline. Ask what kind of study it was, how many people took part, and whether there was a comparison group. Counselors do not order labs or prescribe, and most psychologists do not either, so new changes in appetite, sleep, energy or weight go to the client's medical provider. The exception is nine US states (Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont) that let specially trained psychologists prescribe (Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, 2026). Psychiatrists can order the workup themselves or coordinate with primary care. Screen for eating disorder history before any conversation about changing food, and document what the client reported and which referral you made.
For your own health
If you often feel foggy, flat or short-tempered when you have gone a long time without food, mention it to your doctor. Ask whether a basic physical checkup fits your situation. Do not stop or change a psychiatric medication because of anything you read about brain energy; talk with the person who prescribes it first. If you are thinking about suicide or are in crisis, call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, US).
Sources for this lesson
Raichle, M. E., & Gusnard, D. A. (2002). Appraising the brain's energy budget. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(16), 10237-10239. PubMed Central full text
Rae, C. D., Barros, L. F., Behnke, A., Goyal, M. S., Herculano-Houzel, S., Peleg-Raibstein, D., et al. (2025). Brain Energy Constraints and Vulnerability. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 29-55). Springer. Springer chapter 3
Öngür, D. (2025). Metabolic Neuropsychiatry. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 1-12). Springer. Springer chapter 1
Pillinger, T., Ehrenreich, H., Freyberg, Z., Hahn, M., Mack, M., Milaneschi, Y., et al. (2025). Severe Mental Illness as a Multisystem Metabolic Disorder: From Brain to Body and Back Again. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 245-260). Springer. Springer chapter 11
Berretta, S., Andreazza, A. C., Ben-Shachar, D., Gilbert-Jaramillo, J., Glausier, J. R., Hahn, M., et al. (2025). Metabolic Abnormalities in Psychiatric Disorders: A Transdiagnostic, Whole-Body Approach. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 155-191). Springer. Springer chapter 8
Hofmann, D., Carter, S., Strey, H. H., & Mujica-Parodi, L. R. (2025). Disassociating Causality in Complex Interacting Systems. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 285-304). Springer. Springer chapter 13
Wall, M. M., & Pavlicova, M. (2025). Best Practices for Randomized Controlled Trials in Metabolic Neuropsychiatry Studies. In D. Öngür & J. M. Ford (Eds.), Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports) (pp. 263-283). Springer. Springer chapter 12
Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards. (2026). Prescriptive authority for psychologists: what patients and policymakers need to know. 31 July 2026. asppb.net
Quizzes tell your brain this is important.
OmniTaught5 day streakA
Lv 9Lv 101,200 XP to go
Review, timed for just before you would forget.
OmniTaught5 day streakA
Lv 9Lv 101,200 XP to go
Recalling from memory is what makes learning stick, so OmniTaught has you do it three ways: write the key idea in your own words, answer a quiz while the lesson is fresh, and review it just before you would forget.Sources: Metabolic Neuropsychiatry (Strüngmann Forum Reports, 2025), an open access research volume; JAMA Psychiatry, World Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry and The Lancet Psychiatry; BJPsych Open and Schizophrenia Bulletin; American Diabetes Association consensus statement on antipsychotic medicines, in Diabetes Care; European Medicines Agency and U.S. Food and Drug Administration; National Institute of Mental Health; Peer-reviewed trials and reviews in PubMed.
What this course covers
17 lessons, each short enough to finish in one sitting and each ending with questions that make you use what you just read. The last is a timed review of the whole course.
The Brain's Energy BillWhy a small organ runs up a large bill, and what metabolic psychiatry does and does not claim8 min
Mitochondria: More Than BatteriesWhat the cell's energy makers do, and what mitochondrial dysfunction can honestly mean in psychiatry7 min
Two Illnesses That Travel TogetherWhy people with serious mental illness die younger, and why medication is only part of the reason6 min
Insulin Resistance and the MindWhat insulin resistance is, what a Dutch cohort found about depression, and why a link is not a cause7 min
The Flu-Like Kind of Low: Immunometabolic DepressionWhy a blood marker of inflammation shows up in some depression, and which symptoms travel with it8 min
Looking Inside: What Brain Scans and Lab Studies ShowMagnetic resonance spectroscopy, lactate, and the energy findings in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with their limits9 min
Show all 18Show fewer
The Brain Energy Theory: Strong Version, Fair TestChristopher Palmer's big idea, what researchers accept, what they dispute, and how it could be tested8 min
The Scale and the Symptom: Psychiatric Medications and MetabolismWhich medicines raise metabolic risk, how that risk is monitored, and how to raise it with a prescriber9 min
The Ketogenic Diet: From Epilepsy to PsychiatryWhat ketosis is, where the diet came from, and how strong the psychiatric evidence is so far12 min
What Patients and Clinicians Have Reported: The Case EvidenceWhat published case reports and open pilots of ketogenic therapy found, and what that kind of evidence can and cannot show16 min
Doing Ketogenic Therapy SafelyWhy supervision is the standard, who carries extra risk, and what a careful program checks10 min
Food Quality Beyond Keto: What SMILES ShowedWhat a whole-food diet trial found for depression, and how to talk about food without harm7 min
Movement as TreatmentHow much exercise helps depression, which kinds were studied, and how to start with little energy7 min
Sleep, Light, and the Body Clock: What Short Nights DoHow short sleep and a weak daily rhythm show up in the body, and what the studies can and cannot show8 min
GLP-1 Medicines and the Mind: What Regulators FoundWhat European and US regulators concluded about suicidal thoughts, and what is still unknown about mood8 min
Reading the Hype: Judging a Metabolic ClaimHow to weigh a study, spot the red flags, follow the money and check a citation yourself8 min
Bringing It Into Care: Roles and ConversationsWhat each profession can do, the questions that open the conversation, and where scope ends7 min
Timed Simulation Set: The Whole Course17 items across units 1 to 17, exam mode17 min
Health and wellness, and much more
Start with the health and wellness shelf, then search for anything else. If it is missing, the Topic Genie builds it, and then everyone has it.
Try "I want to help clients with panic", "pass my nursing boards", or "stop being bad at percentages".
Topic Genie
Wish for a topic. Watch it become a course.
Tell the Genie what you want to learn, what you already know, and what it is for. It writes a custom course tailored to you, with lessons, quizzes, and reviews.
One free course for signing up.
Every granted wish goes in the Wish Library, a growing collection of learner-made courses that anyone can add to their app for free. One person's wish becomes everyone's course.
Built by a teacher who became a National Certified Counselor.
OmniTaught is built by Michael C. Shedrick, M.S., PLPC, NCC: a teacher with a master's in educational leadership who became a National Certified Counselor. He built the learning app the research says should exist. Lessons stay short, because attention fades fast. A quiz follows at once, because pulling an idea back out of your own head is what makes it stay, not reading it twice. And review comes just before you would forget, when the effort of remembering does the most good.
Also from the same desk: OmniPsyche Counseling Tools, which preps your next session and not just your notes; OmniPsyche.org, free mental health education with no paywall and no signup; and NOTICE, a free guided meditation app.
Be the one who knows their stuff.
Ten minutes a day. Start with the topic your work depends on, or the one that has bugged you since school.
Choose your hero and watch them level up as you learn.
Seven heroes, twenty-five levels, and a story told a chapter at a time. Advance your hero's quest with every completed lesson and find loot at every new level.
Mage
Warrior
Scholar
Druid
Rogue
Bard
Paladin
Free for a week. Then $9.99 a month.
No card to start.
EVERYTHING INCLUDED
$9.99a month, or $79 a year
Every course in the ever-growing library, every quiz, & your review deck.
One Genie course a month, built on whatever you name. Extra courses are $6.99 each. Add narration to any Genie made course for $9.99.
A free week first, no card needed. Cancel any time from Settings.
Lv 1Lv 270 XP to go
Lv 9
Lv 9
Lv 9
Lv 9
Mage
Warrior
Druid
Rogue
Bard
Paladin