Evidence-Based Psychological Approaches to Mental Health & Wellness
A 9-year-old girl began her first period and soon after, began struggling with severe mental health challenges. Over the years, she was hospitalized three times for mental health issues and placed on strong psychiatric medications. Her condition worsened, eventually leading to permanent institutionalization. Her metabolic health continued to decline, and her parents were left questioning where they had gone wrong.
One of the parents was then referred to WLM for training. Through WLM’s four-part series, her provider learned that the girl was suffering from an undiagnosed endocrine disorder: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This discovery finally provided the answers her family had been searching for, and it changed her life for the better at age 13!
Mental Health Issues are on the Rise
As a psychiatrist or mental health professional, you're accustomed to treating patients with mental health conditions—whether it's depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, or panic disorder. Mental health issues are on the rise. When our medical writer worked as a pharmacy technician in college a decade ago, she noticed that a lot of patients were filling prescriptions for medications like fluoxetine, paroxetine, and sertraline, which she quickly learned were antidepressants. Even her cheerful, former high school friend was taking bupropion, Xanax, and fluoxetine.
Epidemiological data supports these troubling observations: a quarter of American adults—around 50 million people (about twice the population of Texas)—are prescribed medication for mental health conditions like depression or anxiety (1). This is especially concerning as prescription rates continue to climb post-pandemic.
Whether due to our increasingly stressful lives, the erosion of real social connections with the rise of social media, or the lingering effects of the pandemic, many people are struggling.
Telehealth and Quick Pharmacologic Solutions
Telehealth companies focused on mental health expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, capitalizing on the opportunity, and many patients now prefer the flexibility they offer. Companies like Hims®, Hers®, Lemonaid Health®, and Cerebral® promise quick pharmacologic solutions. The convenience of being prescribed medication from home—along with the ability to avoid the stigma some still feel when visiting a psychiatry office—has fueled the success of these services.
Whether these solutions truly benefit patients is debatable, but the rise of telehealth has undoubtedly created competition between traditional, brick-and-mortar psychiatry practices and telehealth services. Many psychiatrists are feeling the pressure as patients turn to online platforms for shorter wait times and less comprehensive evaluations to receive prescriptions.
To stay relevant and continue growing your patient base, it's essential to adapt to these changes and offer unique services that patients can't easily find elsewhere. While providing convenient telehealth options is one way to evolve, as books like Who Moved My Cheese? would suggest, it's only part of the solution. Ask yourself: What sets me apart from other providers? What can I offer that patients won’t easily find elsewhere?
The reality is that while telehealth companies and most psychiatric providers offer the standard pharmacologic treatments—SSRIs, tricyclics, anxiolytics, injectables, stimulants—many patients are still not improving. Providers like you are increasingly frustrated by the prevalence of treatment-resistant depression, which affects a third of patients, and those who simply don’t respond to traditional therapies, regardless of the drug class or dosage (2). If psychiatric treatments aren’t adequately addressing the root cause of the problem, could this be why many of your patients aren’t getting better? Perhaps so!
Addressing the Root Cause with BHRT
Evidence-based BHRT protocols address the root causes of many psychiatric conditions. At WLM, we teach how bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can be used to treat mental health issues. While hormones may initially seem unrelated to psychiatry, they are far more relevant than you might think.
Why? Hormonal imbalances are known to directly affect mental health and cognition in both sexes—such as in the case of the girl with polycystic ovarian syndrome mentioned earlier. As men enter andropause and their levels of testosterone, DHEA, and thyroid hormone decline, mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety, often emerge (3).
Women experience significant hormonal fluctuations throughout their entire lives—during puberty, menstruation, PMS, pregnancy, postpartum, lactation, perimenopause, and menopause. Each of these states is clinically proven to profoundly affect mental health (4, 5). Changes in estradiol, progesterone, thyroid hormone, and androgens (e.g., testosterone, DHEA) play a vital role in women's mental health.
At WLM, we teach a comprehensive approach to mental healthcare that includes changes in lifestyle, diet, and exercise in addition to balancing hormones—all factors that have been shown to profoundly impact mental health. We also emphasize treating the root cause of mental health ailments, rather than covering up symptoms with a bandage approach.
For instance, while SSRIs are commonly prescribed for depression, they often come with plenty of unwanted side effects, including sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and feeling “flat.” While SSRIs have their place in select instances, they are often overprescribed without running a blood panel and considering other factors that could be contributing to the depression, such as hormonal imbalance. In fact, SSRIs can even worsen hormonal imbalances, like low testosterone by inhibiting the enzymes needed to synthesize sex steroids, etc.
With the expertise to properly apply BHRT, you can create lasting impact in your patients’ mental health, offering real healing from treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and more. Beyond the profound fulfillment of incorporating BHRT into your psychiatry practice, many providers report reduced fatigue, less burnout, and higher profit margins. They also enjoy a steady stream of grateful patients, heartfelt praises, and thank-you letters as they finally help their patients find a whole and happy state of mind.
So, What Are You Waiting For?
Register today in Part I of our CME-accredited BHRT training program and start transforming your practice!
References
VinZant N. Pandemic Fuels Rise in Mental Health Prescriptions. Quote Wizard by Lending Tree. Updated January 6, 2022. Accessed October 22, 2024. https://quotewizard.com/news/mental-health-prescriptions#:~:text=The%20rise%20in%20prescriptions%20for,one%20of%20the%20organizations%20below
Lee K, Harper AD. The Consumer’s Guide to NMDA Receptor Antagonists for Major Depressive Disorder. Everyday Health. Updated on July 15, 2024. Accessed April 26, 2024.
https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/consumers-guide-to-nmda-receptor-antagonists-for-major-depressive-disorder/
Bhasin S, Seidman S, Travison TG, et al. Depressive Syndromes in Men With Hypogonadism in the TRAVERSE Trial: Response to Testosterone-Replacement Therapy. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2024;109(7):1814-1826. doi:10.1210/clinem/dgae026. https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/109/7/1814/7516050
Wilson DR, Pietrangelo A. Everything You Need to Know About Postpartum Depression: Symptoms, Treatments, and Finding Help. Healthline. Updated March 31, 2022. Accessed April 26, 2024. https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/postpartum-depression#treatment
Wharton W, Gleason CE, Olson SR, Carlsson CM, Asthana S. Neurobiological Underpinnings of the Estrogen - Mood Relationship. J Curr Psychiatry Rev. 2012 Aug 1;8(3):247-256. doi: 10.2174/157340012800792957. PMID: 23990808; PMCID: PMC3753111.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3753111/#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20serotoninergic%20mechanisms,(93%E2%80%9396)%20systems