Functional Psychiatry

In addition to providing traditional psychiatric intervention and counseling, Dr. Levinson offers alternative therapies using vitamins, herbs, and dietary changes to address the underlying causes of mental illness and limit the need for prescription medications. This type of treatment can resolve the symptoms of a variety of conditions, while cutting side effects and promoting good health.

By approaching the syndrome functionally (see the tab "Functional Medicine") the opportunity for "cure," a term not usually associated with psychiatric diagnoses, becomes a reality. A current example of this is an area of Psychiatry that has far-reaching implications and is a model for many other symptoms-sets in mental health. There is a disease entity known by the acronym, PANDAS, which stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Steptococcal infection. It has been discovered that in a subset of children with new onset of Tourrette's Syndrome and/or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that they had either had a recent Strep infection or they had high levels of IgG titers to Strep associated antibodies. A significant percentage of children who receive antibiotic treatment (for those with a current infection) or immune therapy (e.g. Intravenous Gammaglobulin - IVIG) had resolution of their OCD-like symptoms. This field of Psychoneuroimmunology is just one example of the use of a Biomedical intervention to address psychiatric symptoms. Other symptoms respond to these types of interventions if the correct imbalance is discovered.  Dr. Levinson is a leader in the field of Functional Psychiatry and his experience in pursuing treatable biologic causes of Neuropsychiatric Disorders is world-renown.