Posted by IsoM on February 27, 2003, at 11:34:39
In reply to Re: Is diagnosis important ?, posted by stjames on February 27, 2003, at 10:49:23
If all of us who are treated by our family docs were to reject their treatment & insist on seeing only an "expert", how long does any one want to guess the waiting period would be before we get our appointment?
Already, one has to wait 3 months or more to see a psychiatrist where I live (near a heavily populated metropolis). The only quick way is to get admitted to hospital emergency & go to the psych ward. But then one has no choice of pdoc assigned.
Seeing the number of absolutely "nutty" pdocs I've seen, I'd rather take my chances with trying a few GPs until I found one who's familiar with depression. Even though medicare covers both, if one doesn't have medicare where they live, GPs are much cheaper too.
I've also found many pdocs who are older don't bother keeping up to date on new meds or developments. Many couldn't be bothered. They already have a comfortable patient load & make enough not to care. I've seen pdocs who simply transfer a non-reponsive patient on to the university hospital rather than try new meds or spend more time tackling a tougher case.
These aren't just my experiences but have been garnered from friends & acquaintances who've been to many of the pdocs here.
YES, in theory, a pdoc should be the one to go too, not a GP. In practice, there's many GPs who have spent a lot of time familiarizing themselves with mental disorders & meds to understand their patient's concerns & sometimes those of family & friends of their own.
poster:IsoM
thread:203746
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030224/msgs/204331.html