When Psychiatry Meets the Immune System with Dr. Tom Pollak #89

Feb 5

In this episode of Doorknob Comments, Grant and Fara chat with Dr. Tom Pollak about the complex relationship between the immune system, the brain, and mental illness. Listeners will learn how doctors distinguish true autoimmune brain disorders from primary psychiatric conditions, why tests like spinal fluid analysis are complicated but sometimes crucial, and how both “it’s all psychological” and “it’s all biological” explanations can miss the bigger picture. Their conversation offers a nuanced look at how mind, brain, body, and environment interact, and why good psychiatric care requires holding all of those pieces together.

Dr. Pollak is a Reader in Immunopsychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, and a general adult psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. His specialist clinical interest is in neuropsychiatry.

Dr. Pollack’s research focuses on neuropsychiatry, psychotic disorders, encephalitis, neuroimmunology, and immunopsychiatry, and he's a consultant neuropsychiatrist with a special interest in autoimmune encephalitis. He leads an immunopsychiatry research group at King's College London, oriented towards understanding the role of autoimmunity and infection in psychiatric disorders.

His recent piece in Brain journal, "Why inflammatory reductionism is a threat to psychiatry," explores the emergence of a new worldview which attempts to explain all manner of ills as the result of inflammation or immune dysfunction. He argues that while this view is rooted in science, it neglects the true complexity of most health conditions, and risks undermining the more holistic concepts of illness favoured by psychiatry.

He has recently been applying his considerable talents to address emerging psychopathologies of the technologically-extended mind, sometimes referred to as AI psychosis.

Dr. Pollack is co-Investigator and clinical lead for the Wellcome Trust funded Immune Mechanisms of Antipsychotic Treatment Response study. He has a developing research interest in the neuroscience, phenomenology, neuropsychiatry, benefits and adverse effects of meditation and other contemplative practices.

We hope you enjoy it.

Learn more about Dr. Pollack and his work below.

https://drtompollak.substack.com/

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/thomas.pollak/