Posted on 02/20/2008 3:31:12 PM PST by do not press 2 for spanish
I saw this pic, too. The guy really had some problems which those drugs weren’t meant to address, I’m thinking.
Ahhhh, the magic of Madison Ave.
You are so right about diagnosis! A huge problem is that the hours of discussion and careful analysis it takes to make an accurate diagnosis, and the thorough family history required, especially with any of the illnesses that can have psychosis as part of them, is very rarely done. A psychiatrist cannot determine bipolar, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, etc, in a 15-minute office visit.
I have worked with doctors and in clinics, and also have people in my family with mental illness —it took years to get an accurate diagnosis. Most patients don’t report the whole story, not on purpose, they simply don’t know what symptoms to report. They report depression and anxiety because those are the most uncomfortable and debilitating to live with. This drug “cocktail” sounds typical for someone with agitated depression, but clearly this man’s diagnosis would be something more serious than that. Strange his girlfriend of 2 years does not seem to know for what disease he was being treated. Was the doctor still guessing?
Xanax is a bear to taper off of. I know doctors who use sandpaper.
Yes, it’s important to try to get a thorough understanding of psychology and psychiatry in a person’s illness or behavior, but sometimes those do not hold all the answers. Sometimes evil has its way.
And then again, there are those whose life has been restored because of this drug.
Isn’t it funny how people blame the medications, rather than face the fact that there was a reason medications were prescribed? It’s not like the psychiatrist mugged him and forced meds on him....he felt the need for seeing a psychiatrist in the first place.
Let this be a lesson, don't start with the head doctors because its a revolving door. They're going to put you on something, that's for sure. If you have issues, try alternatives, go to the health food store, or get your hormone and thyroid levels checked by a doctor who will prescribe bio-identical hormones and thyroid. The drugs are dangerous and have devistating side effects not to mention the addictive aspects.
**lolz**
She apparently succeeded, since per police reports he had stopped taking his meds shortly before the shooting. It wasn't dangerous for this guy to be ON the drugs, it was dangerous for him to be OFF them. If this stupid girl hadn't tried to substitute her clueless judgement for that of an experienced psychiatrist, it's quite likely that this tragedy never would have happened. He didn't do anything crazy while he was taking all the drugs the doctor prescribed, but 3 weeks (not surprising, since that's about how long it takes for most of the Prozac to be cleared from the body) after clueless girlfriend persuades him to stop taking at least one of them, he suddenly turns into a mass murderer. If I was a parent of one of the dead or maimed students, I'd be hauling this airhead into court to face a massive civil suit.
Zyban worked like a charm for my boos, who had made several previous serious attempts to give up smoking, without success. Then our secretary tried it and had the same sort of experience you did.
The danger in these drugs is not from the drugs themselves, but from the leftist ideology which uses them as justification for not locking up people who are obviously dangerous. It’s part of the “mental illness is just like any other illness” BS that Hillary is so fond of spouting. If you’re dangerous without drugs, then you’re dangerous period, because even perfectly sane and organized people can forget to take medication. People who are mentally ill are a lot more likely to forget, or to “rationalize” that they don’t need them anymore, or to have a crackpot signficant other and follow his/her crackpot advice to stop taking prescribed medication.
Remember the crazy guy who got shot dead by a federal air marshal on a flight that was about to take off? You guessed it, his crackpot wife had recently persuaded him to stop taking his psych meds.
“AMBIEN! You’ve heard me before, but I’ll say it again: DON”T TAKE AMBIEN! Ask your doctor for something else. I almost burnt down my house cuz of that drug!”
I took it for a week when I was coming off of Oxycodone and it was BAD! I was dizzy and stumbling around the next day and I started forgetting things that I did ten minutes before.
Then I got so physically sick about 12 years later, I ended up in the hospital and eventually lost my colon. That's when I gave in and took medication 10 years ago. WHAT a difference! I still take medication, although at a lower dosage than I used to need.
Most people aren't aware that this is how the psychiatrist works, and for lack of a better term, this is simply mind-blowing.
The person that prescribes the drugs to the patient is the professional who spends the least amount of time with them. It's bizarre and it definitely needs to be addressed.
In my opinion, it's the biggest problem in mental health care.
Good point! I know one psychiatrist who books his patients every 10 minutes on the dot. He gives them SEVEN minutes to talk with him and adjust their prescription, then takes 3 minutes to jot notes in their file and quickly look over the file of the next incoming patient.
7 minutes of face time every two weeks to decide on drugs that can cause hallucinations, suicidal or homicidal impulses, impaired driving, mania, etc.
To elaborate on your point, another part of the psychiatry problem is they get “kickbacks” from the pharma companies to prescribe their drugs. This is legal.
I’ve never heard of a psychiatrist making a diagnosis of any of these serious conditions in a 15 minute office visit. Follow-up visits may be that short, but not the visits on which the diagnosis is based.
There seem to be very few people who have tried the other hypnotic sleep drugs and failed on them, before taking Ambien. With the growing tally of bizarre and dangerous side effects from Ambien, you’d think it would be the LAST choice. Yet doctors keep pushing it on people who haven’t tried Lunesta or Sonata yet.
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