At the forefront of Integrative and Functional Medicine in Australia, Dr Sanjeev Sharma is a practising Integrative Psychiatrist with a deep interest in healing using holistic modalities. His emphasis is on lifestyle, dietary and tailored treatment plans to help people overcome Addiction, Depression, ADHD, Bipolar and other mental health illnesses. His goal is to bring new hope and life to individuals and families who normally would have given up as the struggle to cope dwindled in their lives. This approach is also being used around the world in other disciplines of medicine very successfully. His early training was in India, worked at the Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) Ranchi, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. He has been settled in Perth for nearly two decades. His treatment philosophy combines Eastern and Western medicine and believes that each individual is unique and should be treated as such. Dr Sharma has worked in various capacities in Public Hospitals, in Perth and is now a practising Integrative Psychiatrist at Abbotsford Hospital in Leederville, Perth, Australia.

He regularly speaks on Professional/Public forums highlighting the importance of lifestyle concepts in well-being.

Presentation: What to do when everything fails? Managing treatment resistance in mental health from an integrative perspective.

In the field of mental health, treatment resistance is often met with an escalating search for pharmacological solutions, sometimes leading clinicians down a “rabbit hole” of medication trials. However, this approach can overlook underlying root causes that may be driving the mental health condition.

My presentation will highlight the importance of identifying and addressing primary physiological and biochemical insults that contribute to treatment resistance, particularly in vulnerable populations.

Drawing from current literature, clinical experience, and a detailed case study, I will explore the role of key nutrients, inflammation, and biomarker parameters that should be routinely assessed in mental health care.

By integrating these often-overlooked factors into assessment and treatment planning, clinicians can develop more effective, individualised interventions, moving beyond symptom suppression to true healing.