Driftless Integrative Psychiatry

11/14/2025

People with psychotic disorders often ask me whether there are options besides antipsychotic medications.

It’s a fair and important question.
And the honest answer is this:

There’s no single alternative that replaces antipsychotics.

But there are non-medication pathways with meaningful evidence, especially when psychosis has metabolic, immune, or neuroinflammatory drivers.

06/04/2025

It is tick season. Infections, Immunity, and the Mind: A Field Guide.

1 | Why this matters more than you might thinkRecent studies have moved the “infection‐psychiatry” link from interesting footnote to front-page science: • Lyme & tick-borne illness. A 2024 scoping review of >700 papers found that neuropsychiatric symptoms—brain-fog, mood lability, panic su...

05/22/2025

I’m excited to share that I’ve completed the ILADS Physician Training Program with Dr. Casey Kelley at in Chicago!

This comprehensive training in tick-borne infections and complex chronic illness honed my ability to evaluate and manage psychiatric symptoms rooted in infectious and inflammatory processes.

A huge thank-you to Dr. Kelley and the ILADS community for an inspiring experience.

I’m not taking patients right now, but I do keep a waitlist. We have 100+ people on it and I anticipate returning to doing some outpatient work starting early Winter 2025. If you’re dealing with treatment-resistant mood, anxiety, cognitive fog, or other psychiatric concerns linked to tick-borne or inflammatory illness, visit: www.driftlessintegrativepsychiatry.com ➡️ Work with Me

Dr. Erica Burger

05/15/2025

Psychiatrists are often characterized as "prescribers" and while that is one facet of our work, we have four years of general medical school training and one year of residency dedicated to working on internal medicine, neurology, pediatrics, and emergency medicine services.

This experience is essential because it helps us think critically and holistically to address a broader etiology of mental health symptoms - rather than just prescribing medications.

One of the conditions we assess for and manage is catatonia, which often has both medical and psychiatric manifestations. Infections and autoimmune conditions are known to cause catatonia, as well as psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression.

In pediatrics, kids with autism and genetic disorders are much more likely to develop catatonia than those without.

There is so much we don't know but likely some underlying denominator of immune system dysfunction.

Learn more about catatonia and the role the immune system plays in this condition here:

Traditional teaching: think benzodiazepines, think ECT. Emerging science: also think immune system.