The Evolution of Psychiatry: integrative psychiatry, anxiety and the thyroid

James Maskell is the founder of The Functional Forum and this month the theme was The Evolution of Psychiatry. It was such a great episode so I’m sharing it with you here today.

The first presentation was by Janet Settle, MD and Will Van Derveer, MD. They took the stage and presented on the fundamentals of integrative psychiatry, covering root cause-based psychiatry. Together with Scott Shannon, MD, they are also now offering their “Psychiatry Masterclass” training program to other doctors.

This presentation included:

• The foundations of truly effective, root-cause focused mental health system
• Typical unresolved physiological dysfunctions that manifest as mental illness
• Concrete steps for creating the mental health centers of the future

Here is a sampling of what they covered. Isn’t it wonderful to see a slide titled “Integrative Psychiatry Model” and with physiologic root causes listed?

The section on child abuse, trauma and psychospiritual root causes was enlightening:

They cover MDMA- and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and I look forward to learning more from them about these approaches. However, until I learn more I’m wary of these approaches because of the side-effects. Based on the work I do with targeted individual amino acids I would use them before even considering MDMA or ketamine.

You can watch the entire video presentation here:

 

Next up was Thyroid Pharmacist, Dr. Izabella Wentz, returning to the Functional Forum stage for her first keynote. Dr. Izabella is a dear friend and one of my favorite thyroid experts and she covered the connections between thyroid health and depression and anxiety, looking at proven protocols to address the underlying causes.   Her presentation is titled “The Misdiagnosis Machine: How Thyroid Problems Mimic the Symptoms of Mental Illness.”

Dr. Izabella shares the symptoms of the autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland. As well as fatigue, weight gain, gut issues and apathy, you can experience mood symptoms such as anxiety, OCD-like symptoms and mood swings.

You can watch the entire video presentation here (and listen for a mention of my name and how commonly I see anxiety with clients with thyroid symptoms):

 

If you enjoyed Dr. Izabella’s presentation you don’t want to miss her upcoming documentary called The Thyroid Secret. I’m thrilled to have been invited to contribute on my expertise on anxiety and how this ties back to thyroid health. You can read more about it and find a few snippets from my interview here.

 

Dr. Izabella also has a new book that will be released next month: Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back. I have a review copy and it’s brilliant! I’ll be sharing more via a book review and interview with Dr. Izabella, taking a deep dive into infections and Hashimoto’s, so stay tuned for that.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these two presentations! For me, hearing presentations like these gives me so much optimism for the future of mental health!

I’d love to hear what has inspired you?

If you’re a practitioner and would like to attend a live Functional Forum meeting in the future or tune in online, you can register here to be notified. James and his team also offer excellent practice resources for functional medicine practitioners. We appreciate him for what he is doing for functional medicine via the Functional Forum!