The field of Lifestyle Psychiatry aims to prevent, treat, and sometimes reverse chronic physical and mental health conditions through evidence-based interventions. The foundational pillars of this field are physical activity & exercise, nutrition, restorative sleep, stress management, toxic exposure reduction, and connectedness. Connection has been defined as “feeling part of something larger than yourself, feeling close to another person or group, feeling welcomed, and understood.” Within Lifestyle Psychiatry, however, we emphasize that connectedness encompasses not only our relationships with other individuals but also our connection to ourselves and with the world at large. We have identified these three relationships as three core or pivotal needs. Similarly, we have expanded our previous model of connectedness to include six domains: (1) Happiness, (2) Purpose in Life & Meaning-Making, (3) Empathy & Compassion, (4) Social Connection & Community, (5) Nature, and (6) Spirituality & Religion. In this paper, we present psychological and scientific data supporting the necessity of the six domains of connectedness. By combining the six domains with the three core needs, practitioners of lifestyle psychiatry can develop impactful and sustainable interventions that promote connectedness, decrease negative health outcomes, and promote psychological growth through increasing resilience, emotional development, and the ability to be alone without loneliness.

The incidence of substance use and behavioral addictions continues to increase throughout the world. The Global Burden of Disease Study shows a growing impact in disability-adjusted life years due to substance use. Substance use impacts families, communities, health care, and legal systems; yet, the vast majority of individuals with substance use disorders do not seek treatment. Within the United States, new legislation has attempted to increase the availability of buprenorphine, but the impact of substance use continues. Although medications and group support therapy have been the mainstay of treatment for substance use, lifestyle medicine offers a valuable adjunct therapy that may help strengthen substance use recovery through healthy neuroplastic changes.

The field of psychiatry has evolved over the past 2500 years. Between dynamic psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, lifestyle psychiatry holds a different space. This approach capitalizes on the lifestyle medicine movement, as it promotes change within 6 domains of activity. Apart from incorporating these lifestyle pillars as adjunctive therapy for either psychodynamic therapy or psychotropic medication regimens, lifestyle psychiatry is on the frontier similar to the other growing fields of precision psychiatry, advanced learning in psychiatry, psychedelics in psychiatry, digital mental health, and psychiatric genetics. Any disruption into the historical practice of psychiatry, particularly with the prescription of medications, can be met with scrutiny. We encourage the field of psychiatry to keep an open mind as our field continues to evolve. What makes lifestyle psychiatry particularly powerful and unique in its ability to assess and evaluate internal and external factors that contribute to individual behaviors, and may impact the ability to incorporate healthy lifestyle actions. Internal factors include: emotional regulation, internalized trauma, cognitive factors, and personality traits. On the other hand, external factors include environmental barriers and work-related burnout.

Lifestyle medicine (LM) is a rapidly growing medical specialty that can be integrated into all aspects of care. LM is implemented across primary, specialty, inpatient, outpatient, community and home settings, with multiple modalities, including virtual, individual or group visits. This position paper outlines how LM achieves value, improves health outcomes, and meets the goals of the Quintuple Aim, thus providing a framework to guide LM stakeholders, including patients, providers, payers, employers, and community organizations. It is the position of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) that: (1) The LM care delivery model addresses the escalating chronic disease healthcare burden; (2) LM is a powerful catalyst for healthcare transformation that delivers the Quintuple Aim; (3) LM is whole-person care implemented for all populations, across various settings, intensities and modalities; (4) LM providers are trained, interdisciplinary experts in chronic disease care across the continuum, from prevention to treatment and remission of disease; (5) nine core elements are essential to an effective and evidence-based LM care framework.

We present a case that promotes early intervention and pharmacological treatment for the neuropsychiatric sequelae (frontal lobe syndrome, including cognitive impairment and aggressive behavior) associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and deliri

Climate change is becoming the most significant global challenge and must be addressed on a global scale. At the time that this article is being written, the planetary heat in 2023 was the hottest on record. Similarly, the World Health Organization reports that 99% of the world’s population lives in regions of unhealthy air pollution. Similarly, depression has become one of the leading causes of global mental and physical disabilities, and the impact of depression is predicted to only worsen over the next 25 years. It is interesting to note that climate experts often overlook the adoption of nutrition via a whole plant-based diet as a solution to both mental illness and climate change. In this review, we will touch upon the role of nutrition in gut microbiota and mental health, the impact diet has on greenhouse gases, the role of ultra-processed food, and environmental factors such as air pollution and increasing planetary heat and their growing impacts on mental health. In the end, the promotion of plant-based foods has the potential to improve personal mental and physical health while improving planetary health.