Lifestyle factors such as sleep, diet and physical activity are now widely recognised as important influences on mental health.
Yet the field that brings these strands together - lifestyle psychiatry - has lacked a clear and shared foundation.
This has created inconsistency in how lifestyle approaches are understood and used to diagnose and treat mental health conditions.
Now an international team of 43 experts, including Dr Patrick Jachyra of our Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, has come together to offer the first international consensus on lifestyle psychiatry.
The global effort was led by Dr Jeroen Deenik, at the GGz Centraal mental healthcare centre and Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
The framework developed by the team describes the field as the application of evidence-based, individually tailored lifestyle interventions in the prevention, treatment and recovery of mental health conditions.
It also highlights the need to address health disparities and social inequalities woven into the fabric of society which impact our mental health.
The recognition of these inequalities and their impacts on mental health is a critical cornerstone of the framework.
Interventions could include supporting people to adopt a healthier lifestyle through an improved diet, physical activity, good quality sleep, meaningful social connections and tackling health inequalities in society.
This framework seeks to chart a new area that moves beyond viewing mental health only as the result of individual lifestyle choices.
Instead, it also highlights how social and structural inequalities, as well as cultural determinants, shape mental health.
By recognising the multiple layers that shape mental health, the framework offers a more integrated and nuanced approach to support and care.
Although lifestyle factors affect both the development and recovery of mental health conditions, the evidence has often been examined in isolation.
Approaches focusing on the impact of physical activity, nutrition, sleep or social connections on mental health have tended to evolve separately.
This has led to fragmented practice and made it harder for clinicians, researchers and the public to navigate the field.
The new framework brings these strands together and gives a united definition, showing how lifestyle psychiatry fits into existing healthcare.
To create the framework, the collaborators drew on evidence from physical activity, nutrition, sleep science and mental health research.
The research team brought together psychiatrists, sociologists, microbiome specialists, conflict-area researchers, policymakers, clinicians, and people with lived experience of mental health conditions from 15 different countries.
The team examined how structural factors such as poverty, stigma and low health literacy can impact people’s ability to make lifestyle changes.
The framework emphasises that lifestyle interventions can positively complement, rather than replace, established treatments.
Researchers hope this will guide practitioners, support cross-disciplinary collaboration and strengthen the field’s evidence base.
The research is published in the journal BMJ Mental Health.
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