Posted by myco on February 24, 2009, at 10:11:45
In reply to As a board, can we do anything about this?, posted by Neal on February 23, 2009, at 23:44:16
Hey,
This represents the vast majority of my encounters with your standard gp's (family dr's as we call them in canada). They are, in my opinion, poorly educated in issues of the head. Their advice about, and choice to use, specific meds is almost entirely limited to ssri's and within that limited to the information supplied by the pharmaceutical companies.
I remember my pdoc, when I was a univ student, said put away the monograph it's mostly marketing she said. Many gps dont do the specific diagnosis thing, i.e. atypical depression, gad etc...you are either depressed or anxious and in the case of the former I recommend (after type type into the computer) this ssri...the later...exercise, meditation ete (rarely if ever a benzo - an actually anxiolytic) and quite often poor anxiety sufferers have their symptoms increased by the gp's assurance the ssri's are also good for this...bollocks on that.
What can we do? well if you are in the position of communicating/being treating with a competant, open-minded doc (like a pdoc) you can show initiative in your own treatment and issues by researching as much as you can, crossreferencing with people who share the same issues as you, medication searches with supported studies, second opinions from dr's (thereby showing them you are thinking and interested in your treatment)...and I find, the most valuable with gps is to get to a pdoc, at least once, for a proper diagnosis and a letter including that diag and treatments tried and recommended. Canadian pdoc are so few and far between they like the letter idea...move you out into general practice with the ability to communicate back if needed and not waste time with the pdoc (they smile at this). Let the gp deal with the small issues and work with the pdoc if needed. This letter is like gold for a gp...a letter of reference from a specialist proving your issues and treatments that are effective. never again will you (or me rip my hair out) have to argue tooth and nail about diag and right to proper meds for that diag.
I swear ive aged years in the past 3 months over the ignorance of underskilled gp's.
i'm breathing...ugh lol
myco> Anybody aware of this?
>
> from a recent article:
>
> -"Part of the difficulty, Dr. Miles and his colleagues say, is that doctors are, in general, unskilled both in recognizing the symptoms of depression and in treating the illness.
>
> -The findings of a national survey published in June indicated that only 40 percent of Americans in treatment for depression received adequate care.
>
> -Other studies have found that doctors fail to identify depression in their patients 40 to 60 percent of the time."
>
> the second item is just shocking. If it was, say, heart disease, it would be a national scandal, wouldn't it?
poster:myco
thread:882093
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090223/msgs/882152.html