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Integrative Psychiatry

Early Detection and Prevention of Dementia: A Multisystem Approach

For decades, the research on dementia was an epic failure. All we really had to go on was neurofibrillary tangles and Beta amyloid plaque and what your E1, E2, E3, and E4 allele status was. Dozens of drugs failed in the FDA pipeline. Although there is still much work to do to reach definitive conclusions about best practices, as integrative practitioners, we are thrilled that the Bredesen protocol and other functional medicine approaches are making their way into the prevention and treatment conversations about cognitive decline.

Below are some of the latest findings on contributing factors that for you to know about as you navigate patient care and our own aging!

Atrial Fibrillation and Dementia Risk
A March 2025 study presented at EHRA found that atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with a 36% higher risk of early-onset dementia, particularly in people under 65. This risk diminished with age, suggesting AF could be a primary factor in early cognitive decline. Click here for full article.

Clinical Takeaway: Screen for AF earlier in patients with cognitive complaints. Consider heart-brain axis strategies for patients in their 40s and 50s.

Type 3 Diabetes?
 A growing body of research confirms that insulin resistance, glycemic variability, and chronic inflammation are directly linked to dementia risk. A new review in the Journal of Neurological Sciences ties midlife diabetes to a 60% increased risk of dementia. Click here for full article.

Clinical Takeaway: Don’t just aim for lower A1c—focus on stabilizing post-prandial spikes, improving insulin sensitivity, and regulating inflammatory markers.

Diet and Cognitive Resilience
Recent population studies (Japan, Australia) suggest that diets rich in unprocessed, plant-forward foods—particularly dark leafy greens, healthy fats, and berries—are associated with a 11–19% reduction in dementia risk. Click here for full article.

Clinical Takeaway: Frame food as a cognitive intervention. Focus on nutrient density, flavonoid intake, and reducing processed fats and meats.

Meanwhile in Europe…
A new 2023 report from the prospective study of a cohort of 60K people found that a Mediterranean Diet reduced risk of dementia by 23%! Click here for full article  

Sleep and Daytime Fatigue as Early Predictors
A 5-year longitudinal study published in Neurology found that elderly women with increased daytime sleepiness had twice the risk of developing dementia. Click here for full article.

Clinical Takeaway: Track sleep architecture, screen for fragmented sleep, and address underlying drivers (e.g. glycemic swings, cortisol spikes).

Smell as a Diagnostic Biomarker
Researchers at Mass General Brigham recently validated a home-based smell test that detects early Alzheimer’s-related decline—years before symptoms emerge. More study information here.

Clinical Takeaway: Consider olfactory testing as a low-cost, non-invasive cognitive screen—especially for patients with subtle mood or memory changes.

Final Thoughts

These emerging studies remind us that dementia isn’t just a disease of aging—it’s a slow, systemic process influenced by decades of metabolic, cardiovascular, and lifestyle factors. As integrative practitioners, you’re already working upstream. The research is catching up, and your role in prevention has never been more vital.

Sara Reed, MS, LMFT

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and CEO of Mind’s iHealth Solutions, a digital health company that provides evidence based and culturally responsible mental health services for underserved groups. As a mental health futurist and clinical researcher, Sara examines the ways culture informs the way we diagnose and treat mental illness. Sara’s prior research work includes participation as a study therapist in psychedelic therapy research at Yale University and the University of Connecticut’s Health Center. Sara was the first Black therapist to provide MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical trial and continues to engage in ongoing advocacy work around health equity in psychedelic medicine.

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Jeffrey Guss, MD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher with specializations in psychoanalytic therapy and the treatment of substance use disorders. He was Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Therapy Training for the NYU School of Medicine’s study on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of cancer-related existential distress, which was published in Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016. He currently is a study therapist in the NYU study on Psychedelic-Assisted therapy in the treatment of Alcoholism, a collaborator with Yale University’s study on psychedelic-assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder and a study therapist with the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) study on treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. 

Dr. Guss is interested in the integration of psychedelic therapies with contemporary psychoanalytic theory and has published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. He has published (with Elizabeth Nielson, PhD) a paper on “the influence of therapists’ first had experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training” in The Journal of Psychedelic Studies, August, 2018. He is an Instructor and Mentor with the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Supervisor in NYU’s Fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry. 

Dr. Guss maintains a private practice in New York City.

Will Van Derveer, MD

Will Van Derveer, MD is Co-Founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute and Integrative Psychiatry Centers. Dr. Van Derveer was co-investigator on a phase 2 MAPS study of Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant PTSD, and co-authored the publication of this study in 2018. He has also provided Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in two MAPS training studies. An active provider of KAP at his clinic in Boulder, CO, he has been teaching others KAP therapy for several years. Dr. Van Derveer contributed a chapter on mescaline in the 2021 "Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens" (edited by Charles Grob and Jim Grigsby). He is co-host of the Higher Practice Podcast.

Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant under-recognized root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass.


Scott has been a student of consciousness since his honors thesis on that topic at the University of Arizona in the 1970s under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Weil. Following medical school, Scott studied Jungian therapy and acupuncture while working as a primary care physician in a rural area for four years. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy became a facet of his practice before this medicine was scheduled in 1985. He then completed a psychiatry residency at Columbia program in New York. Scott studied cross-cultural psychiatry and completed a child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of New Mexico.

In 2010 he founded Wholeness Center in Fort Collins. This innovative clinic provides cross-disciplinary evaluation and care for all mental health concerns. Scott serves as a site Principal Investigator and therapist for the Phase III trial of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD sponsored by (MAPS). He has also published numerous articles about his research on (CBD) in mental health. Currently, Scott works extensively with psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy. He lectures all over the world to professional groups interested in a deeper look at mental health issues, safer tools, and a paradigm-shifting perspective about transformative care.

Will Van Derveer, MD is co-founder of Integrative Psychiatry Institute (IPI), along with friend and colleague Keith Kurlander, MA. He co-created IPI as an expression of what he stands for. First, that anyone can heal, and second that we medical providers must embrace our own healing journeys in order to fully command our potency as healers.

Dr. Van Derveer spent the last 20 years innovating and testing a comprehensive approach to addressing psychiatric challenges which transcends the conventional model he learned in medical school at Vanderbilt University and residency at University of Colorado, while deeply engaging his own healing path.

He founded the Integrative Psychiatric Healing Center in in 2001 in Boulder, CO, where he currently practices. Dr. Van Derveer regards unresolved emotional trauma as the most significant root cause of psychiatric symptoms in integrative psychiatry practice, along with gut issues, hormone imbalances, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other functional medicine challenges. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and other psychotherapy techniques. His current clinical passion is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which he mentors interested doctors in providing. An avid meditator, he has been a meditation instructor since 2004.

For the past several years Dr. Van Derveer has taught psychiatrists and other psychiatric providers integrative psychiatry in a number of settings, including course directing the CU psychiatry residents’ course as well as with Scott Shannon and Janet Settle at the Psychiatry MasterClass. In addition to his clinical work and teaching, he was co-investigator in 2016 a Phase II randomized clinical trial, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He continues to support this protocol, now in a Phase III clinical trial under break-through designation by FDA.

Dr. Van Derveer is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine (ABoIHM) since 2013, and he was board certified in the first wave of diplomates of the new American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABIM) in 2016.