Meet our PhD student from Metabolic Psychiatry
Christina Steyn is a first year PhD student at the Metabolic Psychiatry Hub in the University of Edinburgh, originally from South Africa. She has a keen interest in uncovering the biological basis of psychiatric disorders and exploring the factors that foster resilience to mental illness.
Linking physical and mental health
Instead of the traditional approach of treating physical and mental health conditions as distinct problems, clinicians are slowly moving towards treating these as interrelated problems.
I think this research into metabolism in the context of severe mental illness (SMI) is particularly exciting because metabolic biomarkers capture the effects of both the environment and internal biological mechanisms on the body.
Metabolic Psychiatry could help group patients based on their unique metabolism rather than symptoms alone, which can sometimes be difficult to describe. It may even provide insight into the causal mechanisms of SMI, with evidence of metabolites crossing the blood brain barrier and driving certain processes.
What I’m working on
My project focuses on investigating the relationship between metabolic health and SMI such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. I want to find out:
- Can I identify metabolic biomarkers that predict how people with severe mental illness might progress over time?
- Do men and women have different metabolic risk factors for developing mental illness?
- Does sleep influence any observed relationship between metabolite levels and clinical outcomes of psychiatric illness?
A metabolite is a small molecule, within cells, tissues, or biological fluids. It can be used to indicate the presence or progression of a condition, or the effects of treatment, by reflecting changes in an individual's metabolism
Metabolic risk factors can be anything which increases the risk of developing conditions that raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. These factors include abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high blood sugar
Collaboration in research
The clinical aspect of the project will involve recruiting patients with SMI and following them over the course of a year. We’ll collect information including their metabolite levels, sleep, activity, and mood symptoms in a real-world setting. We want to study how these different factors might link.
It will involve collaborating with a range of experts from different disciplines, including researchers who specialise in generating and analysing metabolomics data as well as clinicians who have expertise collecting data from patients.
Alongside this, I am fortunate to be able to collaborate with individuals who have lived experience of SMI through the Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry's lived experience panel. This involves regular meetings where I will have the opportunity to get feedback on my research and find out what the research priorities are from the very individuals who the research is designed to benefit.
Additionally, over the course of my PhD, I will work with a community partner to engage on topics related to my research and learn more about mental illness from someone who is an expert in their experience of living with a mental illness. I believe this will be invaluable in shaping my ideas and guiding my research to have maximal impact.
My motivations
From a big picture point of view, I was inspired to do this research as I am fascinated by complex conditions that are driven by a mixture of gene and environment interactions. My long-term vision is to contribute to the development of strategies that improve well-being in patients and in the broader population.
A current challenge is that individuals diagnosed with the same condition may have very different underlying causes and responses to treatments. This may explain why current interventions for psychiatric disorders are ineffective for many people, as they target symptoms instead of tailored interventions based on well-understood pathophysiological mechanisms. We need to better understand the biology to discover new treatment options.
My research aims to better predict how mental health conditions progress and discover new treatment options. The goal is to create personalised metabolic recommendations that can either prevent negative effects or work better than current treatments.
MHP Research Summit 2025 Programme
Lived experience at the heart
