Posted by Dinah on August 24, 2004, at 21:45:55
In reply to Psych eval woes -- any insight?, posted by Aphrodite on August 24, 2004, at 21:12:03
I've had initial appointments with four or five psychiatrists for meds. It's really not bad. They generally just take a cursory life history, check out your current functioning, followup on any words you might use that might indicate a specific disorder (like if you say "repetitive thoughts" they follow up with ocd questions - stuff like that). They'll probably ask your medication history. If I remember correctly, the intial interview usually took an hour or maybe a bit more.
It's nothing like the sort of thorough evaluation a psychologist might give you with a battery of tests.
Then they'll probably suggest the simplest medication solution to your problem and give that a trial, and follow up with you.
I don't remember any of the initial visits as being particularly unpleasant. I didn't choose to continue with most of them (obviously) for various reasons.
My current pdoc has no interest whatsoever in talking to my therapist, but I understand that isn't usual operating procedure. My first pdoc worked with my therapist at the same clinic, and they talked altogether too much, so I can understand your concerns. I think many are somewhere in the middle.
Your therapist just wants you to feel better. If he's any good sort of therapist at all, he won't refer you to a doctor for meds because *he* needs it, he'll refer you because he thinks it will help you, at least at the moment. And meds do put a floor on the pain, gives you a safety net, so that you can do therapy more effectively, in some situations. Don't feel that it's any reflection on you. My therapist saw my OCD at once, and referred me to a pdoc almost immediately because there are very effective OCD meds out there. I eventually quit the main one, because I had used my time on them to discover minimal medication methods of dealing with it. But I'm not sure I'd have had the distance to do that if I weren't on meds.
poster:Dinah
thread:381925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040821/msgs/381943.html