The treatment of women's issues at Cady Wellness Institute - by Louis B. Cady, M.D.

The common and discriminatory view of women as beset with "hormonal difficulties," "neurotic," or just having problems "in their heads" are all themes that I and all clinicians at Cady Wellness Institute have heard from time to time. It is interesting, indeed, that it was both my women patients as well as pediatric ones that propelled me to start exploring outside of my conventional psychiatric "sandbox" that I had been playing in since residency.

As I have written elsewhere it was an awareness that patients were not suffering from "Ritalin deficiencies" or "Prozac deficiencies" that led me to start considering other things besides cookie cutter, "by the book", unthinking prescribing, or as my friend and colleague Whitney Gabhart, ND describes it: "the casual and ignorant use of medication."

In the early days of my practice while wrestling with treating kids that were not getting better,(when the excellent and much more sophisticated and better tolerated medications of today were not available), I became frustrated when I couldn't get the dosing of prescriptions "just right" for my small charges. The only way to optimize their regimen was to start thinking outside the box and integrating nutraceuticals, including amino acid precursor loading therapy .

When my women patients began to manifest similar difficulties with their own response to conventional "antidepressant therapy," I began looking outside the box again. Much as I had done with the child patients, I began investigating, and using, the precursor loading strategy of 5-hydroxytryptophan, but as I quickly learned when Whitney Gabhart associated with my practice, I was barely scratching the surface of what could be done.

Whitney, working with other licensed physicians during her career in her educational capacity, had collaborated on some absolutely incredible hormonal interventions in women who came into practices basically beside themselves, bingeing uncontrollably, or horribly depressed, or both. Their lives were out of control. I began seeing her do the same thing in collaboration with me in our practice together, as our women patients who came in with seemingly hopeless and irretrievably messed up lives and bodies slowly began getting their lives back, beating chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and basically retrieving their futures. From her, I learned about balancing the thyroid, working up adrenal fatigue and exhaustion, and assessing and treating viral burdens and immune system dysfunction.

Dr. Gabhart became associated with my practice some seven to eight years ago, taking some time off for a while, but then coming back to assist me in building the multi-disciplinary approach that we offer at Cady Wellness Institute. Adding further depth to our staff, Linda Simmons, LCSW, MSW, joined our practice one year ago and has been absolutely dynamic and transformative in the therapy and coaching that she offers our women patients.

There is no one standard intake pathway for our women patients at Cady Wellness Institute. Here are several possibilities:

• If a woman patient is referred in by a physician, therapist,or other health care care provider specifically for purposes of a psychiatric assessment with the probability of medication being used, the patient will most likely see Linda Simmons first, then me. This offers a collaborative assessment where an extensive data base on the complete biopsychosocial issues can be completed before I see the patient, making the use of my time more focused and efficient.
• If the issue at hand is a relationship one, or something where simply having the opportunity to talk to someone and received therapy or "counseling" is appropriate, the intake will most like start as well as stop with Linda Simmons, who practices as a fully and independently licensed mental health professional. Linda can continue with the client in therapy, or, if desired, other referrals can be made.
• With women who have significant issues involving - as some of my patients have put it - their "hormones being out of whack," or if there is evidence other significant endocrine disruption, they will most likely see Dr. Whitney Gabhart first for an evaluation, then me. If there are also issues where therapy would be helpful, the patient may see Dr. Gabhart, Linda, and me.

Our orientation is to evaluate patients efficiently and comprehensively, so that they can receive the help they need in the most time efficient manner possible.

We look forward to being of service to all of our women clients and patients and welcome you to our ideal and goal of "more health, more energy, and more life!"