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Stabilizing the Brain. Personalizing the Taper.
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MD – Albany Medical College
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Residency – UNC Chapel Hill
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MPH – Johns Hopkins University
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MS – Albert Einstein College of Medicine
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IFM Certified Practitioner (IFMCP)
Training & Credentials:
Affiliations & Memberships:
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Mount Sinai Health System – Associate Staff
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St. John’s Riverside Hospital -Behavioral Health Services: Attending
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Alliance for Addiction Solutions – Board Member
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Alliance for Benzodiazepine Best Practices – Board Member
Valsa S. Madhava, MD, MPH, MS, IFMCP
Board-Certified Internist | Addiction Medicine Specialist |IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner
Dr. Valsa Madhava, MD, MPH, MS, IFMCP, is a board-certified Internist, Addiction Medicine Specialist, and Functional Medicine practitioner. She earned her medical degree from Albany Medical College, completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins University (MPH) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (MS in Clinical Research Methods). She is certified in Functional Medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine.
Dr. Madhava directs two functional-medicine-based private practices—Brain Body Medical and The Benzo Taper Doctor—which integrate systems biology and individualized tapering care. She also serves as Attending Physician, Behavioral Health Services at St. John’s Riverside Hospital, and Associate Staff, General Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.
Her work emphasizes restoring physiologic balance during withdrawal, using targeted interventions that address root causes such as neuroimmune dysregulation, nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, and gut-microbiome dysfunction.
Research Paragraph (Five-Axis Framework)
In 2025, Dr. Madhava authored a pivotal study published on medRxiv introducing the Five-Axis Framework — the first biologically grounded model to categorize benzodiazepine withdrawal into distinct phenotypes. Her research links clinical symptoms to specific neuroimmune mechanisms, redefining how recovery is understood and optimized.
Citation: Madhava V. Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Symptom Clusters: Distinct Phenotypes with Treatment Implications. medRxiv 2025; doi:10.1101/2025.10.07.25336923
“Recovery is not a matter of willpower or dose alone, but of restoring balance across the body’s interconnected neuroimmune systems.”
Earlier Talks and Interviews
A look back at earlier interviews and conference talks, before the Five-Axis
Neuroimmune Model was formalized.
