The expression has been that for decades alternative medicine has brought with it an unfortunate implication: either-or. Either you choose conventional medicine, or you choose something outside of it. Or recipes or nutrients. Or psychiatry or biology.
But when it comes to mental health – and especially depression – that picture is no longer accurate. And maybe it never helped.
A better sentence is: Improve your care.
That means replenish your conventional care with non-drug options. That doesn’t mean replace non-drug options to conventional care.
That’s the core idea behind functional psychiatry, a medical approach that integrates conventional psychiatric care with evidence-based nutrition, metabolic testing and personalized biology. It is not a rejection of psychiatry. It’s psychiatry extensive. Or, as I like to say, psychiatry has been redefined.
Functional psychiatry does not ask patients to give up antidepressants, psychotherapy, or medical supervision. Instead, a deeper, more practical question is asked:
How can we find the factors that get in the way of healing – and how can we solve them?
The limits of exclusively symptom-oriented psychiatry
Conventional psychiatry has helped millions of people. Antidepressants, mood stabilizers, psychotherapy and crisis interventions save lives every day. No serious functional psychiatrist disputes that.
But there is also a hard truth: for a large percentage of patients, standard treatment does not go far enough.
Up to two-thirds of people with depression do not respond adequately to their first antidepressant. Many do not respond to the second or third. Others improve partially, but relapse months or years later. Too often, the clinical response is to add another drug, and then another, without ever asking for it Why the first one didn’t work.
Functional psychiatry starts where conventional care often ends: with biology.
Not biology in the abstract, but measurable, correctable biological factors that influence how the brain actually functions: nutritional status, inflammation, hormone balance, metabolic health, gut integrity, genetic variation, sleep quality and more.
Depression is not ‘just in your head’. It is also in your body.
Test first, then treat
The organizing principle of functional psychiatry is simple and profoundly medical: test first, then treat.
Instead of guessing which medications might work, functional psychiatry uses laboratory tests to identify the underlying biological causes of depression. As I just mentioned, these often include nutrient deficiencies (especially those that are the building blocks of neurotransmitters), blood sugar dysregulation, chronic inflammation, intestinal disorders, and poor sleep.
Two people can both meet the criteria for a depressive disorder, yet have completely different biological motivations. Treating them the same way makes little sense.
This recognition and addressing biochemical individuality forms the core of functional psychiatry. It is personalized medicine, at its best.
Supplement medications, not replace them
One of the most persistent myths about functional medicine is that it is “anti-medication.” In reality, the opposite is true.
Functional medicine – and functional psychiatry – often improves medication outcomes.
Correcting nutrient deficiencies can increase the effectiveness of antidepressants, reduce side effects, and make tapering safer when tapering is appropriate – a fact proven by scientific research and clinical experience. Magnesium can reduce anxiety and improve sleep. Vitamin D supports the synthesis of serotonin. Zinc and folic acid influence neurotransmitter signaling and mood regulation. Amino acids can directly support the production of neurotransmitters.
These are not alternatives to medications. They are additions– biological support that ensures that medications work as intended.
For many patients, this integrated approach means fewer medications, lower doses and better results. For others, it means finally responding to treatment after years of frustration.
Either way, it’s good medicine.
A turning point in the evidence
In recent years, academic research has begun to catch up with what integrative physicians have observed clinically for decades: biology matters deeply in mental health.
Studies linking vitamin D deficiency to depression and ADHD. Research linking low zinc and folic acid status to suicide risk. Data showing that metabolic interventions like the ketogenic diet can dramatically improve mood disorders.
These findings are not marginal. They come from respected institutions and peer-reviewed journals. The conversation has shifted.
This brings us to a particularly striking example.
Low dose dietary lithium and brain health
When most people hear “lithium” they think of a powerful psychiatric drug used in high doses to treat bipolar disorder. But there is another form of lithium:low dose of dietary lithium– which naturally occurs in trace amounts in food and water and is necessary for optimal brain function.
Emerging research suggests that low doses of lithium, especially in the form of lithium orotate, may play a critical role in brain health, neuroprotection, and even the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.
A groundbreaking Harvard-led study published in Nature in August 2025, low doses of lithium were shown to reverse Alzheimer’s disease and restore memory function in animal models. Unlike pharmaceutical lithium, these doses were small – closer to nutritional value than drug treatment.
Epidemiological studies have long shown that regions with higher natural lithium levels in drinking water have lower rates of dementia (and suicide). Now we’re starting to understand why.
Lithium supports neurogenesis, reduces neuroinflammation, stabilizes mitochondria and improves cellular resilience. It helps protect the brain at a fundamental level, long before symptoms appear.
This is not an argument for discontinuing conventional treatments for Alzheimer’s. It is an argument for expanding our toolkit. To recognize that prevention and early intervention are important – and that nutrition and trace elements belong in that conversation.
Once again: addition, not replacement.
Good medicines, not alternative medicines
Labeling functional psychiatry as ‘alternative’ medicine is becoming increasingly inaccurate. There is nothing different about testing, correcting deficiencies, supporting metabolism or personalizing care. These are basic medical principles.
Functional psychiatry does not reject psychiatry’s past. It builds on it.
It keeps what works – medicine, psychotherapy, crisis care – and adds what has been missing: a rigorous focus on the biological foundations of mental health.
For patients, this integrated approach offers something invaluable: hope rooted in science.
Not the false hope of the next miracle cure. But the practical hope that comes from understanding your own biology – and ultimately addressing the obstacles to healing.
That is not alternative medicine.
That’s just good medicine.