Baszucki Group Launches Two Initiatives Exploring Ketogenic Therapy for Youth with Bipolar Disorder
Baszucki Group has announced the launch of two innovative research initiatives aimed at exploring the effectiveness of ketogenic therapy for children and adolescents with bipolar disorder. These programs, which will take place across multiple sites, involve collaborations between a family resource center and several academic research institutions. The initiatives focus on advancing metabolic research in the pediatric bipolar population, with the goal of developing ketogenic therapy programs and laying the groundwork for future clinical trials.
Addressing the Challenges of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder affects over one million children and adolescents in the U.S., according to estimates from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, diagnosing and treating bipolar disorder in youth is often complicated, and treatment options are frequently limited. By enrolling children and adolescents into these groundbreaking programs, Baszucki Group seeks to offer a dietary intervention alongside comprehensive support for managing a bipolar diagnosis. These initiatives are designed to tackle the challenges of treating pediatric bipolar disorder, providing both immediate and long-term solutions for affected families.
Initiative 1: Multi-Site Trial of Ketogenic Therapy for Bipolar Disorder
The first initiative is a multi-site clinical trial that includes four institutions funded by the Baszucki Group’s Child and Adolescent Bipolar Network (CABIN): UCLA Semel Institute, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. This study, led by Dr. David Miklowitz, a professor of Psychiatry at UCLA Semel Institute and a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford University, will enroll 60 adolescents with bipolar disorder who are experiencing depressive or mixed states.
The participants will be assigned to receive ketogenic therapy, which will be combined with standard care treatments like medications, family education, and regulation of sleep/wake cycles. The trial will focus on evaluating the safety and adherence to the therapy, symptom improvement, and metabolic outcomes. By focusing on metabolic outcomes alongside psychiatric symptoms, the study aims to offer a more holistic approach to treating bipolar disorder in youth, potentially offering new insights into the disease and treatment efficacy.
Baszucki Group Launches Two Initiatives Exploring Ketogenic Therapy for Youth with Bipolar Disorder
Initiative 2: Long-Term Support Program for Families
The second initiative, titled “Ketogenic Therapy in Action,” is a year-long program focused on providing long-term, holistic support to families and children living with bipolar disorder. Led by Elizabeth Errico, founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Mental Health Resource Center (CMHRC), this initiative will support eight enrolled families.
The program will offer comprehensive education, peer support, and professional consultations to help families integrate ketogenic therapy into their child’s care plan. Participants will receive ongoing guidance on diet management, alongside resources to ensure the therapy can be effectively maintained over time. The initiative will also track the competency and mastery of educational content, longitudinal changes in diet, and changes in psychiatric symptoms, providing valuable data to inform future treatments.
Personal Impact: A Family’s Experience with Bipolar Disorder
Jan Ellison Baszucki, co-founder and president of Baszucki Group, shared the personal motivation behind the group’s support for these research initiatives. “Our family’s experience with bipolar disorder gave us a deep understanding of the helplessness parents feel when conventional treatment options don’t work fully,” said Ellison Baszucki. “We are proud to support research that aims to expand those options and provide families with the resources and education they need to integrate ketogenic therapy–which gave our son his life back–into their care plans.”
Baszucki Group’s involvement with these initiatives stems from a personal connection to the disorder and the hope that ketogenic therapy can offer a new path for others dealing with similar struggles.
Holistic, Patient-Centered Approaches for Future Care
Both of Baszucki Group’s youth bipolar initiatives represent patient-centered, holistic approaches to treatment. These studies aim to inform future clinical trials and improve care options for children and adolescents with bipolar disorder and other serious mental health issues. By integrating the lived experiences of families, patients, and clinicians, as well as quantitative data on both psychiatric and metabolic symptoms, the findings will pave the way for better care practices.
The research also aims to increase the adoption of ketogenic therapy within the psychiatric community and potentially encourage health insurance reimbursement for this treatment modality. With the integration of metabolic assessments as standard practice, these initiatives may fundamentally change how bipolar disorder is treated in children and adolescents, offering new hope for families seeking effective solutions.
Building on Previous Research: The ReTHINK Bipolar Program
These new initiatives build upon Baszucki Group’s existing commitment to advancing research on bipolar disorder through the ReTHINK Bipolar program. This program has already funded over $14 million in clinical trials exploring ketogenic therapy for bipolar disorder at leading institutions such as Mayo Clinic, McLean Hospital, the University of Pittsburgh, Stanford University, the University of California – San Francisco, and James Cook University. The new initiatives further the group’s mission to advance understanding of the role metabolism plays in psychiatric conditions and improve outcomes for youth living with bipolar disorder.
Looking Ahead: Pioneering Research and Treatment Options
As research on ketogenic therapy for bipolar disorder continues to evolve, Baszucki Group’s initiatives are helping to break new ground in both treatment and support for children and adolescents. By supporting these efforts, Baszucki Group hopes to offer meaningful improvements in the lives of young individuals and their families, providing them with the tools they need to manage bipolar disorder more effectively.
These research initiatives represent the beginning of a more integrated approach to treating pediatric bipolar disorder, one that considers the complex interactions between metabolism, mental health, and family support. With continued research and dedication, these projects have the potential to transform the landscape of bipolar disorder treatment and offer hope for a better quality of life for affected youth.
About Baszucki Group
Launched in 2021 by Roblox founder and Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki and best-selling author Jan Ellison Baszucki, Baszucki Group leverages private giving, impact investing, advocacy, storytelling and community building to drive foundational change. A primary objective of Baszucki Group is to transform mental health outcomes by supporting initiatives at the intersection of metabolism, psychiatry and neuroscience. To learn more about metabolic strategies for treating mental disorders, including ketogenic therapy, visit Metabolic Mind, a nonprofit initiative of Baszucki Group.
