A New Way Forward

$35.00

In the face of a growing mental health crisis, we need a change. Mental illness is rapidly becoming the leading cause of disability worldwide, but our current treatment approaches have reached a ceiling effect. The compartmentalization of care across the United States led to an oversight of the root causes of illness. Underwhelming consideration of the body, exposome, and spirit has stifled holistic diagnostic and treatment considerations. A culmination of imprecise, impersonal, and suboptimally efficacious treatment remains. 

In A New Way Forward, Dr. Hatcher critically analyzes the problems among treatment, diagnosis, and formulation in conventional psychiatric practice. Following this analysis, Dr. Hatcher presents the Integrative Psychiatry Matrix (IPM) as a holistic model to organize care. This formulation model captures essential aspects of previously existing models while incorporating new elements from the subspecialty of Integrative Psychiatry. The IPM is a map to guide the clinician through the inclusion of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, psychotherapeutic, lifestyle, and spiritual interventions. Dr. Hatcher presents a new way forward for the field of psychiatry that considers the whole person in developing an effective and personalized plan of care that targets the root causes of illness.

In the face of a growing mental health crisis, we need a change. Mental illness is rapidly becoming the leading cause of disability worldwide, but our current treatment approaches have reached a ceiling effect. The compartmentalization of care across the United States led to an oversight of the root causes of illness. Underwhelming consideration of the body, exposome, and spirit has stifled holistic diagnostic and treatment considerations. A culmination of imprecise, impersonal, and suboptimally efficacious treatment remains. 

In A New Way Forward, Dr. Hatcher critically analyzes the problems among treatment, diagnosis, and formulation in conventional psychiatric practice. Following this analysis, Dr. Hatcher presents the Integrative Psychiatry Matrix (IPM) as a holistic model to organize care. This formulation model captures essential aspects of previously existing models while incorporating new elements from the subspecialty of Integrative Psychiatry. The IPM is a map to guide the clinician through the inclusion of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, psychotherapeutic, lifestyle, and spiritual interventions. Dr. Hatcher presents a new way forward for the field of psychiatry that considers the whole person in developing an effective and personalized plan of care that targets the root causes of illness.

 

Chapters.

  • Chapter 1. The Problem of Treatment. An in-depth analysis of the current issues of psychiatric treatment including pharmaceuticals, psychotherapy, and lifestyle modification.

  • Chapter 2. The Problem of Diagnosis. An examination of diagnostic and clinical reasoning with a detailed critique of current and alternative diagnostic approaches in psychiatry.

  • Chapter 3. The Problem of Formulation. An evaluation of current formulation methods in psychiatry, highlighting noteworthy benefits and caveats.

  • Chapter 4. Paradigm Shift. An introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of Integrative Psychiatry, moving from reductionism to chaos and complexity theory with a rationale for the dialectical synthesis of both extremes.

  • Chapter 5. A New Way Forward. An introduction to my Integrative Psychiatry Matrix (IPM) with clinical considerations for how to navigate the matrix in clinical practice.

  • Chapter 6. The Mindbrain. An exploration into the mind and brain from an abstract and macroscopic level down to a concrete microscopic level and how to oscillate between the two.

  • Chapter 7. The Bodymind: As Above, So Below. An analysis of body systems and how they are dynamically interrelated with the brain. Some considerations for further diagnosis and treatment are discussed briefly.

  • Chapter 8. The Exposome: As Within, So Without. An examination of behaviors and the lifestyle in relation to Integrative Psychiatry practice with clinical considerations and pearls scattered throughout the chapter.

  • Chapter 9. The Self and Spirituality. An exploration into the incorporation of personality, the Self, and psychospiritual techniques to finalize this holistic approach to care.

  • Chapter 10. Walking the Path. A summary of the IPM and how to begin using it in practice with key clinical considerations for initiating and progressing through the plan of care throughout the chapter.