Integrative Medicine for Depression
A Breakthrough Treatment Plan that Eliminates Depression Naturally
Integrative Medicine for Depression is an accessible and informative medical book for popular audiences.
James Greenblatt’s Integrative Medicine for Depression is a clear and direct guide to natural depression treatments as an alternative to medication-heavy clinical approaches.
Making a case that modern psychiatry relies too much on drugs and generalized diagnoses of depression, the text draws on clinical studies to indicate that drugs often worsen symptoms of depression when used over a long period of time. Instead of following that course, it advocates an approach based on nutritional supplementation and lifestyle changes that are informed by medical tests. Depression, it argues, can be the secondary result of a variety of primary maladies that range from sleep apnea to zinc deficiency.
The book’s patient-centered approach is appealing, and its accessible style and natural language make it easy to absorb. It explains complicated medical ideas in a straightforward way. Each chapter is summarized, with key points highlighted, at its conclusion.
Organized in a logical way, the book first explains how modern psychiatry works and what happens in a clinically depressed person’s brain and body. It then moves on to a comprehensive treatment strategy based on maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle. While much of the book’s advice is also good for maintaining general health, it connects specific deficiencies to depression in a way that is both intuitive and thoughtful.
The book’s basis in traditional psychiatry gives it conceptual stability, and it draws upon Greenblatt’s medical expertise in a reassuring way. The book calls out the professional establishment, criticizing it for leaning too heavily on fast-acting medical treatments for depression while acknowledging that many psychiatrists are at a loss as to how else to treat their distressed patients. The book’s research citations are sound and rooted in peer-reviewed studies.
The fact that the book’s conclusions are intuitive helps to give it credibility. While the idea of treating depression holistically does not originate with this book, the book’s justification for relying on holistic and dietary treatments for mental illness seems rooted in Greenblatt’s professional experience. It is an alternative to established practice and side effect-ridden medication that is tempting to believe in for its own sake. Most valuable for its innovative ideas, which appear to be compatible with traditional treatment in many cases, the book emphasizes that there is a time and a place for psychiatric drugs.
Integrative Medicine for Depression is an accessible and informative medical book for popular audiences.
Reviewed by
Anna Call
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
