Posted by Victoria on January 4, 1999, at 17:58:58
In reply to Re: Finding a Doc, posted by Pam on January 4, 1999, at 2:16:59
I think it depends what you're looking for. If it's primarily medication management, look for a psychopharmacologist (try a local university or med school). If you get a couple of names, you might look them up on Medline or another medical data base to find out what their research focuses on. If you are looking for "talk" therapy, too, then you may need to experiment and meet a couple of doctors to decide who's the best match. I was incredibly lucky picking a doctor out of the phone book, but there was some method to my choice: I picked someone who practiced close to the university/med school and who listed himself under both "psychiatry" and "psychoanalysis" (because I wanted someone flexible, not an automatic pill-pusher). I talked to him on the phone, asked the standard questions (Where did he train? Is he board-certified? What is his clinical orientation?) and set up a one-time appointment to discuss my situation and hear how he would approach it. I met similarly with two other therapists, and made my decision. As it turns out, I'm rather hard to medicate due to extreme susceptibility to side-effects and there have been some problems because he is, admittedly, not an expert on medications. So he referred me to a psychopharmacologist for a consult, to get some recommendations on medication strategies. That combo is working out well for me.
poster:Victoria
thread:2027
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990101/msgs/2047.html