Integrative psychiatry, as practised here, means one thing: the psychiatric assessment includes the whole body, and treatment uses everything that has evidence behind it. It does not mean replacing medication with supplements, and it does not mean treating psychiatric illness as a lifestyle problem.
What gets assessed
- Medical contributors. Thyroid dysfunction, B12, folate and iron deficiency, vitamin D, anaemia, diabetes, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, and perimenopause and other hormonal change.
- Medication side effects. Cardiac, steroid, neurological, hormonal and even some common over-the-counter medications produce psychiatric symptoms that get mistaken for primary illness.
- Sleep. Including undiagnosed sleep apnea, which is an extremely common contributor to treatment-resistant depression and to cognitive symptoms mistaken for ADHD.
- Substances. Alcohol, cannabis, nicotine, caffeine and stimulants, assessed honestly and without moralising.
- Nutrition, movement and daylight. Assessed for their measurable effect on mood, anxiety and sleep architecture — not as a substitute for treatment.
Where this changes the outcome
The clearest example is depression that has not responded to two or three medication trials. A meaningful proportion of those cases involve an untreated medical contributor — most often thyroid dysfunction, sleep apnea or a deficiency — that no one screened for, because the psychiatric appointment was fifteen minutes long and the medical appointment was about something else.
Finding it does not always resolve the psychiatric illness. But treating a psychiatric illness while an untreated medical contributor is still running underneath it is treating with a hand tied.
What integrative psychiatry is not, here
It is not an alternative to psychiatric medication. Dr. Torrijos is a board-certified physician who prescribes, and where medication is indicated it is recommended clearly. It is not the sale of supplements — this practice does not sell products of any kind. And it is not a promise that lifestyle change alone will resolve serious psychiatric illness, because for many people it will not.
What it is: a refusal to look at only one system at a time.
Working with your other physicians
Laboratory work is ordered or requested through your primary care provider, and findings are discussed with them directly, with your consent. Where a specialist referral is warranted — sleep medicine, endocrinology, neurology — you will get a specific recommendation rather than a vague suggestion to “see someone”.
This service
| Approach | Whole-body assessment |
| Includes | Labs & sleep review |
| Format | In person or video |
| Medication | Prescribed when indicated |
| Products sold | None |
Related
Frequently asked
Do you prescribe supplements instead of medication?
No. Where a deficiency is documented, replacement is recommended for the deficiency. Where psychiatric medication is indicated, it is recommended for the illness. Neither substitutes for the other, and this practice does not sell supplements.
Will you order lab work?
Where it is warranted, yes — either ordered directly or requested through your primary care provider, whichever gets it done faster and at lower cost to you.
Is this the same as functional medicine?
No. The approach here stays within evidence-based psychiatry and general medicine. Tests and treatments without established evidence are not used.
Can this replace my current psychiatric treatment?
It is not intended to. Integrative assessment is part of a psychiatric evaluation, not a replacement for psychiatric care. Never stop a psychiatric medication without discussing it with a physician first.