Could Stress Be The Hidden Driver of Mental Illness?

Dec 8, 2025

D. Parker Kelley, a postdoctoral fellow specializing in trauma and mitochondrial psychobiology, joins the conversation to explore the relationship between chronic stress and mental illness. He introduces the Allostatic Triage Model, which suggests that stress prompts the brain to prioritize limited energy resources, potentially leading to psychiatric symptoms. Kelley discusses how stress impacts metabolism, the significance of predictability in resilience, and how dietary choices and even psychedelics might aid brain energy regulation.

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ANECDOTE

A Professor's Skepticism Sparked The Research

Parker recounts a lab conversation where a question about 'energy' sparked investigation.
That curiosity led to finding consistent mitochondrial signals in stress models and human PTSD comparisons.

INSIGHT

Brain Energy Is Disproportionate And Limited

The brain uses ~20–25% of the body's energy despite being ~2% of mass.
Under stress the brain must triage scarce metabolic resources to prioritize survival circuits.

INSIGHT

Frontal Networks Pay The Energetic Price

Evolutionarily newer frontal regions are more metabolically expensive than older networks.
During stress the brain reallocates energy from costly frontal networks to cheaper salience circuits, driving transdiagnostic symptoms.

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New research links chronic stress, brain energy, and psychiatric conditions, including PTSD, depression, and bipolar disorder.

Stress doesn’t just impact your mood; it affects how your brain allocates energy. In this interview, Dr. Bret Scher sits down with Dr. Parker Kelly, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF and the San Francisco VA, to unpack the Allostatic Triage Model of Psychopathology, a new framework proposing that psychiatric symptoms may emerge when the brain is forced to triage limited metabolic resources under chronic stress. Co-authored with mitochondrial researcher Dr. Martin Picard, this model could shift how we understand and treat mental illness.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

How stress drives brain energy dysfunction
Why mitochondria and metabolism may be central to mental illness
Which brain networks are impacted by energy deficits
The role of predictability and routine in stress resilience
How metabolic therapies like nutrition, sleep, and even psychedelics, may support brain energy regulation

This conversation bridges neuroscience, metabolism, and mental health, offering a unique and unifying lens on complex psychiatric conditions.

👉Subscribe to Metabolic Mind for more conversations about metabolic health, metabolic psychiatry, and mental health: https://www.youtube.com/@metabolicmind.

#MetabolicMind #KetogenicTherapy #Neuroscience

Expert Featured:

D. Parker Kelley

Resources Mentioned:

The allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model): How reallocation of brain energetic resources under stress elicits psychiatric symptoms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106419

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Metabolic Mind is a non-profit initiative of Baszucki Group working to transform the study and treatment of mental disorders by exploring the connection between metabolism and brain health. We leverage the science of metabolic psychiatry and personal stories to offer education, community, and hope to people struggling with mental health challenges and those who care for them.

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