Posted by JohnL on October 20, 2000, at 5:52:50
In reply to My psychiatrist, similar to Dr. Jansen?, posted by Shirley on October 19, 2000, at 18:44:27
> John L. and all you other Dr. Jansen fans, I thought you might be interested in some remarks my psychiatrist made at our session tonight. They lead me to believe that he might be receptive to what Dr. Jansen is doing when to be honest, I thought he wouldn't be. Since I am doing so well on the transition from zoloft to prozac, I haven't felt the need to mention Dr. Jansen but I just might the next time I see him.
>
> Anyway, while responding to a question I had about Prozac, he mentioned that he realized that some patients did very well the first few weeks of treatment. He definately felt it wasn't a placebo effect because if it was, those people would cease feeling well after three days. The pdoc went on to say that the people who responded so well the first few weeks were those who were going to do the best on medication.
>
> Now I realize that this is no guarantee that he would embrace the Jansen philosophy. But still, I found those remarks interesting and encouraging.
>
> John B, Cam W., Andrew and everyone else, thank you so much for your helpful posts. It is because of you that I have finally been able to ask the right questions.
>
> Good luck to everyone.
>
> ShirleyShirley,
I don't think your doctor's observations are unusual. The fact is, some people do respond very quickly, sometimes in 1 to 3 days, and sometimes within two weeks. Sure, those people who don't respond quickly but give the drug 6 to 8 weeks could eventually respond, but the early responders are clearly displaying a superior match between the medication and the patient. That's what Jensen's method is all about...finding a superior match, not just a good one or an OK one.What amazes me is when I see formal clinical papers trying to explain why antidepressants take weeks to work. It's almost as if they have totally ignored those patients that didn't take weeks to respond. Almost as if they were flukes of nature, or non significant, or even non existent. I think the opposite is true, they are highly significant and point to things the psychiatric community has not spent enough time looking at. The statistics I've gathered show that approximately 1 out of 4 patients, sometimes 1 in 3, respond very rapidly. To be objective and fair, one must ask, why is that? But hardly anyone does ask, and hardly anyone seems to care. I'm very glad your doctor has at least given this phenomenon notice. Scientific papers talk about delayed response as if it were fact. Clearly, it isn't fact. It's one of the biggest myths of psychiatry based on real life observations I've noticed over the years in hundreds of other patients, not to mention myself.
It might be possible for you to steer your doctor in the Jensen direction without actually mentioning Jensen, his book, or his methods. I don't know why, but some doctor's egos are easily offended. But they shouldn't be. I mean, the whole idea is to get the patient completely well as fast as possible, right?
John
poster:JohnL
thread:46799
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001012/msgs/46850.html