Keto and Schizophrenia: What the Research Actually Shows

On February 5, 2026, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that a ketogenic diet had 'cured' schizophrenia in some cases. The statement was widely criticized, and the claim was described as misleading by several psychiatrists. Christopher Palmer, a Harvard psychiatrist whose case reports were cited, has said he has not used the word 'cure' in his research. Although small studies and case reports have shown promising changes, experts emphasize that the evidence remains preliminary.

In 2019, Palmer published two case studies in which two people with long histories of psychosis went into remission after strict ketogenic therapy. A 2024 Stanford pilot trial of 21 participants reported an average 31% improvement on a clinical scale when patients followed a ketogenic diet while continuing medication. Nevertheless, these studies were small, often without control groups, and systematic trials have not been completed. Therefore, many clinicians recommend that ketogenic approaches be studied as adjunctive treatments, not as replacements for standard antipsychotic medication. The field of metabolic psychiatry has grown, and 2025 reviews have called for randomized trials. Since these are early signals, larger randomized studies are needed to test efficacy and safety.