Mark Leeds, D.O. provides concierge telemedicine care for people who want to safely reduce or stop the medications their bodies have grown dependent on. The practice centers on benzodiazepine tapering and psychiatric medication deprescribing, and also offers medication assisted treatment for opioid dependence and alcohol use disorder treatment using the Sinclair Method.
Care is private and one on one. Patients work directly with Dr. Leeds at every appointment, never with substitute providers, coaches, or non-physician staff. Medical management is available to patients in Florida.
Philosophy of Care
The idea at the center of this practice is simple and often overlooked: physical dependence is not addiction. A person who was prescribed a benzodiazepine by their doctor and developed dependence has a medical condition caused by the medication. That is not a character flaw, and it is not addiction. It calls for a gradual, medically supervised taper, not an addiction recovery program built for a different problem.
That principle runs through everything Dr. Leeds treats. When a proper medical taper exists for a condition, it should be used, and it should be done carefully, at a pace the patient’s nervous system can actually tolerate. The suffering caused by stopping a medication abruptly is never a lesson to be taught or a hardship to be earned. It is avoidable with the right approach.
Patients are partners in their own care. They keep control over the pace and direction of treatment, and they are never pushed into a timeline that belongs to an insurance company instead of their own recovery. Dr. Leeds treats each patient as an intelligent adult with a unique situation, not a case to be fit into a fixed protocol.
The same respect extends to the treatment of addiction itself. Addiction is not a moral failing or a lack of willpower. People living with it deserve dignity, harm reduction, and genuine support rather than judgment.
Part of what shapes this work is what Dr. Leeds is not. He is not a psychiatrist, and his approach is not bound to the conventions or fixed protocols of any single specialty. He treats each patient as an individual rather than by a standard recipe, and he stays open to adjunctive approaches that can make a taper more tolerable, including options some practitioners dismiss out of hand. The goal is always to reduce suffering and help the patient function, not to defend a particular method.
How the Practice Began
Dr. Leeds came to deprescribing the way real expertise is usually built, through years of clinical work rather than a single course or credential. Long before benzodiazepine tapering had a name most physicians recognized, he was already helping patients reduce and stop medications their bodies had adapted to. Much of what he learned came on the job, often because a patient raised a question that sent him looking. One patient asked whether alcohol could be reduced gradually with naltrexone. Another asked whether he had heard of the Ashton Manual, the foundational guide to tapering benzodiazepines. He looked it up, and it opened an area of medicine he had not seen addressed anywhere else.
Working across these problems over the years led Dr. Leeds to a single guiding idea, what he thinks of as a unified approach to tapering. The body adapts to any substance that reaches the brain, and the way off is the same in principle: a slow, patient-paced reduction rather than a rapid detox. The parallels are direct. In opioid treatment, a person is often moved onto buprenorphine, a longer-acting medication that makes a gradual taper possible. The benzodiazepine crossover described in the Ashton Manual works on the same logic, transitioning a patient to a weaker, longer-acting medication that smooths the path down. Far from an outdated method, in Dr. Leeds’ experience that approach is superior for many patients.
The benzodiazepine patients stood out in particular. Most were not addicts at all. They had become physically dependent on a medication their own doctors had prescribed, and the standard system kept treating them as though they had an addiction, which only caused more harm. One patient described how hard it had been to find anyone who offered a proper, gradual taper instead of a one-week detox, and how little of this care she could find online. So Dr. Leeds began writing about it, one article at a time, so that patients searching for help could actually find it. That work grew into the educational library on his website and into a concierge telemedicine practice built specifically around careful, individualized tapering, with real time, direct physician access, and a plan that moves at the pace each patient’s body can tolerate.
Today, Dr. Leeds is among a small number of physicians focused specifically on outpatient benzodiazepine tapering and prescribed-medication deprescribing, and he serves on the medical advisory board of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition.
Credentials & Affiliations
- Mark Leeds, D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), earned his medical degree from Des Moines University in 1996.
- His undergraduate degree is in mathematics, from Vassar College (1991), with a concentration in music theory and composition — an analytical foundation that carries directly into the precise, curve-based dose reductions at the heart of careful tapering.
- His clinical background is in family practice. Over the years his focus narrowed to medication tapering and deprescribing, the work the practice is built around today.
- He holds an active Florida medical license. Medical management and prescribing are offered to patients located in Florida.
- He serves on the medical advisory board of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition (BIC), an organization dedicated to benzodiazepine awareness and patient advocacy.
- He hosts The Rehab Podcast on the Mental Health News Radio Network, available on major podcast platforms.
Osteopathic Roots
The school where Dr. Leeds trained has deep roots in the profession’s history. What is today Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine was founded in 1898 by Dr. Summerfield Saunders (“S.S.”) Still and his wife, Dr. Ella Still, as the Dr. S.S. Still College of Osteopathy — the second osteopathic medical college established in the United States. S.S. Still was a nephew of Andrew Taylor Still, the physician who founded osteopathic medicine itself, so Dr. Leeds trained within a school connected directly to osteopathy’s founding family. Unusually for its era, the college educated women alongside men from its earliest years.
The college carried several names over the decades. By the time Dr. Leeds graduated in 1996 it was the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, taking its current name, Des Moines University, in 1999. He carries that osteopathic tradition — a whole-person approach to medicine — into the careful, individualized work the practice is known for today.
What Sets the Practice Apart
- Direct physician care only. Every appointment is with Dr. Leeds. There is no handoff to coaches or non-physician staff.
- Real time with patients. Weekly video or audio visits of up to an hour, not a brief medication check.
- Truly individualized plans. Treatment adapts continuously to how each patient responds. No cookie-cutter protocols.
- The Ashton Manual crossover approach. Rather than treating it as an outdated method, Dr. Leeds uses the Ashton Manual crossover where it fits, transitioning a patient to a weaker, longer-acting medication that, in his clinical experience, makes for a more comfortable taper and better day-to-day functioning.
- Precise, gradual reductions. Compounded liquid formulations allow dose reductions as small as fractions of a milligram.
- 24/7 text access. Real physician availability for urgent questions between appointments, not an answering service.
- Complete privacy. No group meetings, no shared facilities, no exposure to other patients.
- Coaching woven into care. Helping patients reconnect with meaningful activities that support healing.
Services at a Glance
- Benzodiazepine and z-drug tapering, using the Ashton Manual, hyperbolic tapering, and the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines
- Psychiatric medication deprescribing, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), gabapentinoids, and antipsychotics
- Opioid dependence treatment with buprenorphine, a form of medication assisted treatment (MAT)
- Alcohol use disorder treatment using the Sinclair Method and naltrexone
- Care for benzodiazepine-induced neurological dysfunction (BIND) and protracted withdrawal
Work With Dr. Leeds
An initial consultation is the usual first step, and it can also stand on its own as a paid session without continuing as a patient. To begin, reach out through the contact form.