Psych Meds or No Psych Meds

The Kripalu View - (sandcastlematt)

Debate: Psych Meds Or No Psych Meds

Mind science is full of debate regarding polemic possibilities, and it’s our collective  team mission, if you read CorePsych News, or CorePsych Blog, or work with us at CoreBrain Training, to spread the word on the confusions present in some of the current mind-care delivery debate. Too often the protagonists get heated over psych meds or no psych meds – and miss the available larger perspective. Their ensuing invectives miss many serious mind body connections.

Mind Body Connections Matter

I do love to hang out with folks on the same CoreBrain path, traveling the same trails, on that same mind body journey. Why argue about speculative interventions when useful, available biomedical data can significantly improve outcomes?

Yes, I've been preparing comments for a presentation March 16-18 at the highly respected Kripalu Yoga Center for the internationally acclaimed Food As Medicine Meeting,  hosted by psychiatrist Dr James Gordon, Director of the Center for Mind Body Medicine. Last time I checked the mind and body were connected…

Mind Body Mission

The Center for Mind Body Medicine “teaches thousands to help millions of people internationally,” and I deeply appreciate Jim's international  mission, as well his egalitarian approach to the relevance of new discoveries at the mind body interface for evolved treatment strategies. Jim is at the forefront of making a difference by bringing these fresh issues to the public and professionals who can make a difference, even in corners of the world without any mind or psychiatric care. Jim keeps his global perspective alive everyday.

I've had the pleasure of working with Dr Gordon at a previous Food as Medicine Conference in Baltimore, and I can report without reservation that Jim does a great job of bringing in some of the most interesting people to discuss so many rapidly evolving mind topics. Jim brings mind body medicine to a completely different level. If you can make it on for that March Weekend in the western Mass. Berkshires near Stockbridge we'd love to see you there.

At Kripalu with Dr Gordon the Mind Body Medicine speakers work hard to throw cold water on debate polemics, and bring fresh information to the table for both public and professionals at any level of practice. Functional medicine becomes truly functional. Hey, it's at Kripalu, why not find some balance? 😉

So What Is The Debate About?  Quite Simply: Intervention Perspectives

Those mind-label polemics now bubble under my skin simply because I recently listened to a psych friend on the functional side of the debate run down my traditional psych colleagues – and on the other hand I've regularly heard how traditional colleagues question what I'm doing with CorePsych Treatment Delivery systems. His functional medicine point on YouTube: It's malpractice to use psych meds without understanding functional medicine. Ouch! 😐 Lemme think about that remark for a moment… does that mean every traditional psych who uses their best standard-of-care science is negligent?

C'mon… My point: Both functional medicine and traditional psychiatric approaches are indeed limited if they disregard any mind science.

We all  have much to learn,
The woods are lovely dark and deep
but I have promises to keep,
and we all have miles to go before we sleep.
~ Frost 

The Best Scientific Information Drives the Most Informed Treatment Strategies

Too often these one sided messages keep the public confused, frozen in what-to-do-next, because they see excellent clinicians making their points by saying biased negative statements about evolving mind science.

The debate about what to do with that person in the office who suffers with mind issues is too often drawn between two dueling pistols aimed at these ridiculous, outdated, non-science points: Psych Meds or No Psych Meds. Both functional medicine and traditional medical perspectives live in contemporary peer-reviewed science. Let's work together to see how two good systematic approaches can combine to render the most evolved service for those suffering with psychological issues.

“Comprehensive” – Not Just Functional or Traditional

With good patient care we need to put down the pistols and work more closely together for the benefit of those who suffer at the hands of reductionistic  approaches. Let's not become blind men trying to identify an elephant by only feeling the trunk.

– So do join us in the Berkshires, – hope to see you there,

cp

Related articles

• Psych Meds Beyond ADD: The 3 Rs (corepsychblog.com)
• Psych problems: the Categorical Wars (corepsychblog.com)
• Psychiatric Diagnosis and DSM 5: Maps to Nowhere (corepsychblog.com)
• Rethinking the intro psych class (teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com)
• Types of Yoga (myjourneythroughthickandthin.wordpress.com)
• Meditation and mind-body connection (homoequilibrium.wordpress.com)