06/25/2026
❌The standard psychiatric model is built around symptom identification and medication matching.❌
➔I want to be honest that this model helps a lot of people and has an important place. 🚩But it is not the same as investigating the biology underneath the symptom.
When someone comes to me with:
🧠Anxiety
🧠Depression
🧠Mood instability
🧠Cognitive symptoms
…here is what I am looking at that most standard workups never include.
🧪Organic acids testing
A urine-based panel that measures neurotransmitter metabolites for dopamine and norepinephrine turnover, serotonin metabolism, GABA levels, and kynurenine pathway markers. This tells me what the neurotransmitter system is actually producing and breaking down, not just what symptoms suggest.
🧪Full thyroid panel including free T3, free T4, reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies
Thyroid hormone receptors are dense in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Subclinical hypothyroidism and even suboptimal free T3 within normal range produce depression, anxiety, cognitive slowing, and poor stress tolerance.
🧪Methylation markers including homocysteine, whole blood histamine, and MTHFR status
Methylation is required for the conversion of folate to the active form needed to produce serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. MTHFR variants affect up to 40% of the population and are almost never assessed in psychiatric care despite directly affecting neurotransmitter synthesis capacity.
🧪Inflammatory markers including hs-CRP, ferritin, and when indicated, IL-6 and TNF-alpha
Neuroinflammation is one of the strongest drivers of depression, anxiety, and cognitive symptoms. These markers tell us whether inflammation is part of the picture.
🧪Fasting insulin and cortisol rhythm
For all the reasons covered in blood sugar month. Both independently drive mood and anxiety symptoms in well-documented ways.
🧪Comprehensive stool analysis
Because the gut-brain axis is a primary route through which dysbiosis, permeability, and systemic inflammation reach the brain.
The investigation does not replace psychiatric care. It adds a layer that psychiatric care currently does not provide.
