Posted by Refractory on October 18, 1999, at 12:22:13
In reply to Re: Need a good Psychiatrist in NC, posted by JohnL on October 18, 1999, at 3:27:24
No, I am not bipolar at all...have been screened for that by several doctors. I have never had mania or hypomania. I had to get screened thoroughly to rule out bipolar or schizophrenia, etc. just to get into that rTMS clinical trial. Besides, I just came off lithium augmentation with Effexor XR and the lithium made me MUCH worse. Ive tried mood stabilizers like neurontin and they dont help they make it worse in fact. Yes, I have read all that stuff on Depression Central. I definitely have plans to try TCAs and MAOIs very, very soon. In fact I am currently tapering off my Effexor XR now so I can go on Pamelor soon. I really should have been tried on a TCA a long time ago...kinda makes me mad a little. I have even read on the net that the "definition" of treatment resistant depression is the failure of a TCA, probably Tofranil, at an adequate dose. I am not totally treatment resistant. I get a partial response from the meds. I feel around oh, 40% the majority of the time. I have not worked now in about a year and a half!! I am trying to avoid ECT for obvious reasons...have YOU had ECT? Ive had my thyroid checked and all the blood work, blah, blah, blah.
I am all for TCAs and MAOIs and any other drug which would help me though. I dont know, maybe ECT is what I will end up having to get though, who knows? I am very cooperative with my Pdoc, take my drugs religously at the doses I am supposed to take them, etc. I also even force myself to work out aerobically on a consistent basis. I force myself to swim laps most days. Of course I cant swim at the intensity or speed I used to before depression, but I force myself to swim a 650 meters 5 or 6 days a week most of the time. Of course a lot of times I am so dead from depression it takes every bit of strength I have to discipline myself to do it but I do it. Guess that is a carryover from my predepression days when I was kind of athletic and an exercise buff...good habits carried over a little. My depression was largely steroid induced(prednisone) and it was especially nasty before I got on meds. But the meds just dont bring me back very much, just enough to somehow barely function.Ive been advised I might wanna see a specialist in treatment resistant depression but kind of get the run around when I call Duke or Chapel Hill. They always say, "well, ALL of our psychiatrists should be capable of treating treatment resistant depression." Nobody bothers to try to refer me to anybody good. I did get referred to this one good psychiatrist at Duke...but he was not accepting new patients...bummer cause I think that guy was an excellent med guy.
Nobody has wracked their brains to try to help me find a good psychiatrist, if I died tomorrow I think the only people who would even care at all would be my immediate family.The best medical care I have gotten so far was when I went to the Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston for rTMS trial. They were very professional and very competent I thought. And hell, that was free...I was not even paying for it! Cause it was a research thing. But I received super high quality care there but when it was over I was no longer in the research program there so I cannot go there anymore. But I though MUSC was the greatest for psychiatric care. Much better than Duke, which I think is oftentimes kind of overrated.
That being said, I need a good psychomed person, preferably a male doctor cause of my gruff personality type. I dont care where they come from or where they are at in NC, as long as they are within an hour and a half drive from me which puts Duke, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Charlotte all in my target range.
If any doctors are reading this and you are good and need new patients, please drop me a direct E-mail.
poster:Refractory
thread:13361
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991016/msgs/13377.html