The Breakthrough Depression Solution: A Personalized 9-Step Method for Beating the Physical Causes of Your Depression

by James M. Greenblatt

In The Breakthrough Depression A Personalized 9-Step Method for Beating the Physical Causes of Your Depression, Dr. James Greenblatt, a pioneer in integrative medicine and dually certified child and adult psychiatrist, lays out a proven approach to identifying and healing the physical contributors to your depression.

Despite the dozens of antidepressants on the market, millions of people who seek treatment for depression fail to find ongoing relief from their symptoms. Others must go through months of medication trials before finding the prescription(s) that works best for them.

In The Breakthrough Depression Solution, Dr. Greenblatt uses what he s coined THE ZEEBrA approach to take readers beyond traditional treatment strategies toward healing. Dr. Greenblatt argues that, to treat depression, clinicians must understand the connection between mind and body and start looking at the unique biochemistry of each individual, including physical factors such as nutrition, genetics, hormones, and stress.

Finding the right treatment is easier than people think and may be as simple as taking a vitamin or mineral tablet. The author discusses the latest technology and the many tests available to ensure that medications and other treatments are targeted to each individual for the best outcome possible. A chapter describing the tests that patients can ask for empowers readers to get the treatment they deserve.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Psychology

271 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2011

About the author

A pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, James M. Greenblatt MD has treated patients with complex behavioral and mood disorders since 1990. After receiving his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Greenblatt completed his psychiatry residency at George Washington University Medical Center. Dr. Greenblatt went on to pursue a two year fellowship at John Hopkins University School of Medicine to become board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry where he also served as the Chief Resident. During the fellowship, Dr. Greenblatt received specialized training in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders that appear in childhood, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and complex mood and anxiety disorders.

Following the fellowship, Dr. Greenblatt noticed the current treatment model in psychiatry relied solely upon symptom-based recommendations for medication with little consideration for the biochemical individuality or the underlying biological mechanisms that may be contributing or causing symptoms. This prompted Dr. Greenblatt to develop an outpatient clinic, Comprehensive Psychiatric Resources, which provided patient-centered care for families with children struggling with ADHD and other behavioral disorders. Dr. Greenblatt was one of the very few physicians at that time who knew how to utilize nutritional interventions to help patients achieve relief from their symptoms. His work in the 1990’s was years ahead of his time, as the field of psychiatry had not yet understood how genetics, nutrition, and biochemistry played a role in an individual’s mental wellbeing. Dr. Greenblatt’s expertise in integrative medicine attracted patients from all across the world seeking consultations for complex mood, behavioral, and eating disorders.

Pioneers such as Dr. Greenblatt have contributed to the revolution of consumers seeking “personalized medicine”. The culture has since shifted and the fields of medicine and psychiatry are rapidly changing, as more physicians are acknowledging the accumulating research looking at nutritional interventions for psychiatric illness. The understanding of genetics, metabolism, and nutrition is now incorporated into mainstream medicine. Integrative medicine has eclipsed terms such as “alternative” medicine. For the last three decades, Dr. Greenblatt has devoted his career to educating his colleagues, clinicians, and patients how integrative medicine can have profound effects on mental wellness and how to employ balanced, integrative strategies in the treatment mental illness. Dr. Greenblatt has published multiple books: Answers to Anorexia (2011), The Breakthrough Depression Solution (2012), and Answers to Binge Eating (2014), Integrative Therapies for Depression: Redefining Models for Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention (2015), Nutritional Lithium: The Cinderella Story (2016), and The Breakthrough Depression Solution 2nd eds. (2016) sharing his clinical experience treating complex mood and eating disorders utilizing an integrative approach.

Dr. Greenblatt currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, MA and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine.

Reviews

[beentsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really good. A very balanced look at depression that takes the entire human body and the psyche into account to. Not anti-pharma, just very pro looking at all the possible reasons for depression and for people being trapped in misery. Diet, exercise, spiritual/community/social needs, sleep, and yes, medication where it is warranted and can be a help. But, not just throwing SSRI's at people which seems to be modern medicine's answer to the problem.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is helpful because it discusses integrated way of treating depression that involves a lot of things you can do yourself. A lot of books written about depression are either in the talk therapy or the medication camp. This book discusses many of the things that can help a person recover from depression without using medication. You can also use it if you’re currently taking medication.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very discouraging to read about all the things that could be causing or contributing to my depression that can be discovered through a simple blood test, and then find out that my psychiatrist does not offer these blood tests. No one here does. So I'm still stuck with the same antidepressants that cause infuriating side effects. It's too bad Greenblatt doesn't discuss this issue very much. He says that he does prescribe antidepressants for some of his patients, but he doesn't say much about how he helps them deal with the side effects. I also wish that Greenblatt would say more about how antidepressants work and how efficacious they are. He mentions Robert Whitaker's book, "Anatomy of an Epidemic", but he doesn't address Whitaker's contention that antidepressants actually cause people to relapse into more severe chronic episodes of depression because of the changes antidepressants make to the brain. I would like to know more about what Greenblatt thinks about long-term usage of antidepressant medications for those who find they have progressively worse relapses every time they try to discontinue medication.

Despite these flaws, there is a lot of merit in Greenblatt's book. It's about time somebody wrote about a variety of nutritional factors that can cause or contribute to depression. If only medical profession here would offer the tests Greenblatt recommends to check for these things!

[Audrey Lynx · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of great, unique information in this book. The most frustrating part of reading it is that to implement any of his suggestions, you'd have to go to a psychiatrist that practices his brand of psychiatry or follows his integrative methods (for the tests and supplementation advice he suggests), and there are no psychiatrists of this type in Oklahoma. Nevertheless, it's a well-researched and informative book with great advice.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this book was organized very well and explained nutritional causes of depression. Our diets are lacking in nutrition, and many of us need more of one mineral than another.

suggested zinc intake: 8-11 mg/day, those with depression 30-40 mg/day, preferably in a chelated (amino-acid bound) form, (but less than 50 mg/day!)