Nutrition: An Essential Part of Integrative Psychiatry for Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners

As psychiatric nurse practitioners, we’re trained to listen carefully, treat the whole person, and use our clinical judgment to navigate complexities within a biopsychosocial picture.

And yet, many of us were never taught how to assess or address something as foundational as nutrition despite how often it shows up in our patients’ lives and symptoms.

Part of a comprehensive assessment includes being able to recognize when food, digestion, and nutrient status are contributing to a patient’s symptoms.

For example, a simple question like “What does a typical day of eating look like?” can open up insight into energy, mood stability, appetite cues, or disordered eating patterns. Asking about digestion or meal timing can help uncover clues about glycemic regulation or micronutrient absorption that might be missed otherwise.

Careful assessment can include screening for a vitamin D deficiency in someone with persistent depression, or noticing that a patient with panic attacks skips breakfast and relies heavily on caffeine. It might mean encouraging a small increase in fiber to support gut health and bowel regularity, or recommending a high protein snack before bed to curb late night snacking.

Small shifts like these can sometimes make a meaningful difference because nutrition is an essential part of every person’s life. Literally - we can’t survive without nourishment.

In the Intro to Integrative Psychiatry for PMHNPs we walk you through how to think about food, digestion, and key nutrients through an integrative lens. You’ll leave with a clear sense of what to ask, what to look for, when to refer, and how to start integrating nutritional interventions into your care planning.

If you’ve ever felt like there’s more you could be doing beyond meds and therapy, this is a meaningful place to begin.

We’d love to have you join us. Learn more about our Intro to Integrative Psychiatry course here.