In 2024, as part of the Lifestyle Psychiatry presidential theme introduced by APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc., the APA Board of Trustees approved the creation of a Presidential Workgroup on Lifestyle Psychiatry. This workgroup, chaired by Gia Merlo, M.D., M.B.A., M.Ed., a clinical professor of psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, was charged with building psychiatry-focused, evidence-based educational content, engaging members, and incorporating lifestyle psychiatry into ongoing community service projects. A lifestyle psychiatry curriculum for interested APA members was created to systematically approach the foundational literature in lifestyle psychiatry, using the Lifestyle Psychiatry: Through the Lens of Behavioral Medicine (1) text and supplemented with recently published literature. The workgroup members led the study groups, one for each of the six pillars of lifestyle psychiatry, that later transitioned to writing groups. Ultimately, thirty-three co-authors collaborated to generate this publication.

This report consists of seven sections, an overview followed by the six pillars of lifestyle psychiatry that summarize the theory and clinical applications. In the overview, after introducing lifestyle psychiatry, psychological factors that may lead to mental blocks and external barriers to the ability to adopt new health behaviors are considered. External barriers such as work-related burnout, the social determinants of health, and one’s environment play a significant role in one’s ability to engage in lifestyle interventions. Mental blocks can include emotional traumas that become internalized, struggles with emotion regulation, and cognitive concerns and their associated behaviors. Personality traits and their associations with multiple mental and physical conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, have been extensively researched for decades and ought to be considered when developing treatment plans (2).

References

1. Merlo G, Fagundes C. Lifestyle Psychiatry: Through the Lens of Behavioral Medicine. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2023. 492 p.
2. Merlo G, Sugden SG: The power of lifestyle psychiatry: a new approach to mental health. Am J Lifestyle Med 2025; (epub ahead of print, Apr 19:15598276251329915)