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Practice Framework

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Family Medical Psychiatry was founded in 2012 to provide evidence-based quality mental health care to the Seattle area and Puget Sound region. Areas of emphasis include treatment-resistant depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and attention deficit disorders. Careful medication management with patient and family education are cornerstones of our treatment approach. We teach patients and families so that they can understand the illness and the choices that must be made. The goal is to improve quality of life and increased self reliance.  Comprehensive  evaluation is necessary for accurate diagnosis or diagnoses, which in provides the best treatment plan.   This is a model for medical care found to improve outcomes in specialty care centers for cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
At the same time that we focus on interrupting an acute episode of illness, we begin the work of preventing recurrence by educating both patient and family on the crucial elements of treatment adherence, lifestyle change and relapse prevention. We teach family what is known about their family member's illness and treatment. The role of lifestyle is reviewed - diet, exercise, sleep, stress, drug/alcohol use. 
 

Often, medication is not enough.  Longstanding chronic depression, anxiety, attention deficit and other major psychiatric impairments result in learned maladaptive thinking patterns that perpetuate feelings of inadequacy and behavioral problems.  In disorders that involve cluster impairments like ADD/ADHD, functional impairment is the focus of cognitive-behavioral therapy CBT.  In other conditions, learning to connect significant life events with debilitating symptoms can provide insight and perspective in the midst of suffering.  The combination of time limitted, focused  CBT and medication repeatedly has shown the best treatment outcomes.