The idea behind conservative medication management arose from our career observation that that many patients tend to needlessly accumulated multiple psychiatric medications at high doses. Oftentimes these patients were not engaged in any non-pharmacologic treatment approaches.

Overprescribing is a consequence of our current healthcare system, which is highly efficient at dispensing and promoting medications use but not efficient at safely discontinuing medicaionts options for health conditions. Large investments in the promotion of medication treatments by highly resourced pharmaceutical companies, often means that family doctors and psychiatrists are much more familiar with medication therapies than alternative approaches. In addition, the time constraints and economics of managed care often means patients are typically seen for less than 25 minute intervals, and sometimes intervals as short as 15 minutes, which also lends itself to a more transactional model of health care where drug treatments are more easily deployed to treat symptoms than more time consuming and poorly reimbursed non-pharmacologic interventions. 

The problem that arrises from the over-reliance on medications is that it can frequently lead to polypharmacy and adverse health consequences. Most psychiatric medications can contribute to weight gain and cardiovascular problems. Some can even cause permanent neurological damage. Given these risks, we believe the use of medications must be minimized to the extent possible