University of Edinburgh

Academic Institute

OFHS260060

This study adopts a “whole-person” approach to understand how physical health issues, the environment, and life experiences together affect health outcomes for mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The main aim of this study is to determine whether exposures that cause issues with the immune or metabolic dysfunction systems can contribute to mental health outcomes, and whether stressful life events influence this relationship. To achieve this, we will explore how physical health challenges – such as long-term illnesses, severe infections, or air pollution – affect mental health. We will also explore how difficult life events such as moving to a new country can affect mental health. Finally, we will test whether physical health challenges and stressful life events might work together to result in worse mental health. Our goal is to understand how certain biological processes contribute to psychiatric conditions. Specifically, we will focus on two biological processes in the body: inflammation (activation of the immune response) and metabolic issues (disruptions in the chemical reactions that produce energy from food). These processes have been linked to the risk for psychiatric conditions, and early studies have also shown the potential benefits of targeting these processes for treating mental health symptoms. We will capitalise on the scale and depth of Our Future Health data to better understand how being exposed to inflammation or metabolic issues influences health outcomes in people with psychiatric conditions. Biological factors alone are unlikely to fully account for psychiatric risk, so we will also explore how stressful life events affect health outcomes in this population. Therefore, in this study, we will generate new hypotheses for future research by characterising the relationship between biological processes, stressful life events, and health outcomes in psychiatric conditions.

In this study, we will investigate the role of how inflammation and metabolic dysfunction issues in influencing clinical outcomes affect health outcomes of psychiatric conditions. Psychiatric conditions are among the leading causes of health burden worldwide. Identifying and targeting the mechanisms underlying these conditions can help to reduce this health burden. Our findings will identify inflammatory or metabolic exposures which inflammatory or metabolic issues that are associated with increased prevalence are linked to higher rates of psychiatric conditions and/or worse clinical health outcomes in people living with these conditions. These exposure issues, to the extent that they are modifiable can be changed, may then be targeted by existing treatments (repurposed used in new ways) or new interventions treatments to improve clinical outcomes. Thus, this study will benefit the public by enabling future clinical research to develop more effective interventions treatments for psychiatric conditions.

Public Health Research

29/07/2026

24/07/2026

TRE