Depression: The Integrative Mental Health Solution

by James Lake

Integrative mental healthcare:
•is a person-centered approach that emphasizes maintaining optimal health and wellness
•takes into account the symptoms, preferences and circumstances of each unique person
•focuses on treating symptoms not disorders
•uses conventional mainstream approaches like medications and psychotherapy, and complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies like herbal medicines and acupuncture
•uses the best available research evidence to develop an individualized treatment plan


Depression: The Integrative Mental Health Solution
is filled with practical information about safe, effective and affordable treatments including:
•herbals, vitamins and other natural supplements
•whole body approaches
•meditation and mind-body practices
•light, sound and other established energy therapies
•subtle energy therapies


Depression: The Integrative Mental Health Solution includes extensive hyperlinks within the text, and links to valuable internet resources to give you the maximum amount of information in the shortest amount of time.


Depression: The Integrative Mental Health Solution will help you
•Understand depression better
•Take inventory of your symptoms
•Learn about a variety of non-medication approaches for treating depression
•Develop a customized treatment plan that makes sense for you
•Re-evaluate your treatment plan and make changes if your initial plan doesn’t work


Treatment approaches are summarized in easy-to-read bullets so you can easily find key information on a variety of treatment choices, including:
•Name of treatment and category (biological, whole-body, mind-body and energetic)
•How the treatment works (comments on the mechanism of action where known)
•Dosages (for natural supplements) or frequency or duration of use to achieve beneficial effects (for whole body, mind-body or energy approaches)
•Examples of safe and effective combinations with other treatments
•Comments and warnings about adverse effects and particular treatment combinations that may be unsafe and should be avoided
•Duration of treatment needed to achieve beneficial results (where known)

ebook

First published July 7, 2015

About the author

I am a Board-certified psychiatrist who practices on the central California coast. My career has been focused on bringing the sub-specialty of integrative mental health care into the mainstream. I have served as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Stanford, and is currently a visiting assistant professor of medicine at University of Arizona School of Medicine, Center for Integrative Medicine.

I founded and chaired the American Psychiatric Association’s Caucus on Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine from 2004 through 2010 and is a founding member and former chair of the International Network of Integrative Mental Health. I've completed an intensive course in medical acupuncture and I am a long-time student of Tibetan medicine.

I have published numerous peer-reviewed articles and chapters on integrative medicine and psychiatry, contribute a regular column on integrative mental health care to Psychiatric Times, and serves on the editorial review boards of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Journal of the Association for Advances in Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology, and Jour of Clinical Psychiatry. I am the author or editor of 4 textbooks on alternative and integrative mental health care: Chinese Medical Psychiatry: A Clinical Manual, (with Bob Flaws), Blue Poppy Press, 2000; Textbook of Integrative Mental Health Care, Thieme, 2006; and Complementary and Alternative Treatments in Mental Health Care (co-edited with David Spiegel), American Psychiatric Press, 2007, and Integrative Mental Health Care: A Therapist’s Handbook, Norton, 2009.

My most recent project is a series of 10 short books on integrative mental healthcare intended as concise guides on the integrative management of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, substance abuse and other common mental health problems. The books are available as ebooks through Amazon.com and Smashwords and as print books through Amazon.com. You can find my blog and several full text articles on my website
http://progressivepsychiatry.com/