"Integrative psychiatrist" James Greenblatt, MD & his promotional videos

[Grind80]

Can some of our senior people please watch this and let us know what you think?

 

 

[ask2266]

What do you mean by "legitimate?" Are you speaking about him as legitimate, or are you asking about whether his program is legitimate? Dr Greenblatt is very well known in holistic psychiatric circles. He is an MD and has trained lots of doctors to try and help people get off ADs with nutrition. My psychiatrist works under his protocol. He and Dr William Walsh (who worked under Dr Hoffer, I think, who discovered schizophrenia is linked to niacin deficiency) are probably the 2 best known psychistrists who have used nutrition in the place of drugs for psychiatric disease and continue to tweak their programs.  I find that they know a lot but may be missing some things, too, because I think that there is an underlying neuro-immune system issue beyond just methylation. I will watch this program and report back my thoughts.

[Grind80]

I was asking if his program is legitimate.  All you really hear in these forums is that time is the only thing that helps heal, but if there's anything out there that has been shown to accelerate the process I want to be doing it.

Please do let me know what you find out. 

[Tranqdart]

I stumbled upon this video on YouTube today, then came to SA to see what folks thought. I don’t have lots of money— or even very good insurance — but I thought I’d at least check my latest blood work to see how it stacks up against Greenblatt’s recommendations. AND FOLLOW GREAT ADVICE FROM ELSEWHERE ON SA: try one intervention at a time, and go slowly

[Grind80]

Hi! Thanks for responding. How did you manage your lexapro taper? I started tapering from 20mg in July and am at 11.5mg as of this morning. Thanks for any tips

[Tranqdart]

4 hours ago, Grind80 said:

Hi! Thanks for responding. How did you manage your lexapro taper? I started tapering from 20mg in July and am at 11.5mg as of this morning. Thanks for any tips

Hah. I managed my taper very poorly indeed. I’m happy to hear yours is going well. As for me, I made reductions, according to no guideline apart from how I was feeling. In other words, I would only reduce my dose after I had stopped having zaps and felt otherwise stable. Even so, a month after my last dose – a teeny tiny. 025 mg — I started having classic withdrawal symptoms. I only found out how poorly I had managed my taper after the fact, and only learned about the potentially helpful reinstatement approach about six months after that, when it was a little too dicey for me to attempt it.

 

If I had to do it again, I would adopt Greenblatt’s approach of fortifying myself with some of the supplements he mentions before starting the taper. I would also follow the guidelines that have become official in the United Kingdom, as described in the rather long (sorry) video that I am linking to here. I hope this resource is helpful to you. Every good wish. 
 

 

 

[Altostrata]

Has anyone seen Dr. Greenblatt's more recent videos?

 

Going back a ways, I vaguely recall Dr.Greenblatt was trying to cure depression with amino acids. Here's an old 2012 presentation by him https://finallyfocused.org/amino-acid-precursors-in-the-treatment-of-depression-and-anxiety/ and, yep, he's trying to balance neurotransmitters with supplements. This was a fad in naturopathic medicine back then, also among "functional medicine" MDs and "integrative" psychiatrists. Dr. Greenblatt does sciencey testing to assess neurotransmitter levels by measuring metabolites (at about 28 minutes).

 

Balancing neurotransmitters via supplements has no more validity than balancing neurotransmitters with drugs -- these practices in naturopathic medicine and psychiatry are based on the bogus "serotonin deficiency" theory, which does not even bear discussing.

 

In 2022, Dr. Greenblatt published a pricy book, Functional Medicine For Antidepressant Withdrawal, that does not hinge on "balancing neurotransmitters", but instead attributes difficult withdrawal to metabolic variance and nutritional deficiencies. This time, he recommends a supplement program to remedy these problems, which he claims makes "slow tapering" easier. Some pages of it here https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Functional_Medicine_for_Antidepressant_W/U3F3EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover 

 

A tapering method does not appear in the table of contents. A short discussion of tapering starts on page 24, but he says none of them is backed by evidence. He says the supplement program should be followed for a minimum of 3 months before starting the taper. A 4-month taper is mentioned. He advocates cross-tapering 5-HTP with the antidepressant. He may or may not be sympathetic to hyperbolic tapering in addition to his supplements.

 

In my opinion, Dr. Greenblatt doesn't have anything to contribute about tapering. His recommendations appear to depend on the dispensing of placebos in the form of a supplement program (which may incidentally rectify some nutritional gap) and sciencey voodoo about nutritional fixes. Given the poor state of tapering knowledge among doctors, a 4-month taper is sort of progressive, and probably works for about half of those who go off antidepressants -- we already know that about half can get away with short, sloppy tapers. If you've already had problems with your taper, there is no Greenblatt miracle cure for you.

[Ryder]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:23 AM, Altostrata said:

Balancing neurotransmitters via supplements has no more validity than balancing neurotransmitters with drugs -- these practices in naturopathic medicine and psychiatry are based on the bogus "serotonin deficiency" theory, which does not even bear discussing.

 

I ran into a similar doctor in Sydney who used a similar approach. I went and saw her for myself. 

 

She basically said something to the tune of the following. Ryder, your Benzo dependency are really, really bad for you. But instead of helping, she gave a Vitamin C diet plus a whole bag of supplements + a Gluten diet. Absolutely ridiculous that someone who knows about the withdrawals of A.D's and Benzos, would put another obstacle In your away other than just to taper slowly off the meds. I didn't need Vitamin C or that Gluten crap. 

 

I am glad you have reported this Alto as it is basically what they have coined now "Junk Science."

[Ryder]

@Altostrata, where is the thread where you can report doctors ?? as I have decided that I would like to report this one.

[Altostrata]

Look in Off-Topic.