Posted by Squiggles on September 1, 2001, at 17:41:15
In reply to Doc doesn't like cocktails, posted by Kathleen6674 on August 31, 2001, at 9:47:27
> I keep reading all sorts of wonderful advice and information here about how combinations of meds have helped refine everyone's responses. Have any of you had a doc who didn't like combos of meds? Mine doesn't seem especially keen on them - I've been jumping from one med to another instead of piling them on, so to speak, over the past year or so. Does anyone have any advice for working with a doctor who doesn't like to combine meds? Or should I get a new doctor or what? Are there different "schools" of psychopharmacology? I do think that part of his reluctance is that my dosage often gets adjusted, and hence he doesn't want to make more than one change at a time, i.e., if we up a dosage AND add a med, then I get bad side effects, how would we know if it's the new med or the increased amount of the old one? But I'm still curious about the one-at-a-time camp vs. the combination camp, if indeed there are competing "schools" of med management.
This is just a hunch I have - the greater
the number of meds prescribed for a condtion,
the greater the inability to treat the right
condition with the right drug. Secondly, many
drugs create so many side effects that other
drugs are necessary to treat them. And, one
more problem - if treatment is inaccurate or
the dose is wrong, a further drug is added to
correct an unrecognized problem.Polypharmacy more commonly compounds problems
rather than solve them. I think that luck
as well as skill and experience of the doctor
have a lot to do with hitting the mark.If I were to be cautious, I would choose an
older doctor, choose a pychiatrist or team
of psychiatrists (there is strength in numbers)
and rely on a conservative GP.Having said that, there is the matter of Luck.
Diagnosis is difficult without physical criteria.
Maybe things will change.Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:77066
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010828/msgs/77321.html