I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend attending CNDA’s Merging Medicine 20 Conference hearing about updates in the world of psychiatry as it relates to naturopathic medicine. I heard some fascinating updates on sleep science, as well as a talk from Dr. Amen and his work with SPECT scans. While I work mainly with hormonal imbalances I am always looking to expand my skillset as I frequently see both women and men with mood imbalances as well. Naturopathic medicine is very well-equipped to treat psychiatric disorders and I have had a lot of success in this area. Often, I find that psychiatrists are highly compartmentalizing their patient’s disorders and often forget that anxiety and depression sometimes have for example a hormonal etiology or even a nutritional etiology. It is these cases where I find naturopathic medicine has the most success and we are able to have a big effect without necessarily needing pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Brinkley, ND