Posted by Tomatheus on April 24, 2012, at 12:55:17
In reply to long term effects from meds, posted by poser938 on April 24, 2012, at 11:23:25
poser938,
Some doctors seem to have a belief that if they've never heard of a patient responding to a medication in a particular way that the patient must be wrong in what he or she says about certain medication responses. Never mind the fact that rare reactions to medications can and do happen and that unusual responses to medications are routinely reported in the medical literature. With some doctors, when you tell them something that they haven't heard of happening before, they'll flat out tell you that it can't happen.
Why do some doctors seem to be so dismissive of patients who report responding to medications in ways that aren't consistent with what they've heard of happening before? I don't know for sure. Maybe it has to do with the fact that doctors are trained to be skeptical, and some of them take their skepticism to the next level by dismissing anything that seems to be unlikely. Maybe there are other factors. All I can say is that from my own experiences with doctors and from what I've read about others' experiences with doctors, it seems that doctors are usually at least very hesitant to acknowledge responses to medications that aren't consistent with what they've heard of happening before.
I don't think that I've had as many long-term adverse medication reactions as you've had -- as far as I can tell, I've had two to date -- but I can empathize with what you're going through with both the long-term adverse reactions themselves and your doctor's refusal to acknowledge the reactions. At this point, I've pretty much given up on the idea that I'll ever get my brain back to the way that it was before I took the two medications that seemed to have long-term effects on me (which isn't to say that that would be my goal; my goal would be to get my brain back to the way before it was before the onset of any significant psychiatric symptoms). Sure, I'm trying out different treatments that might ease the symptoms that have emerged since I took the two medications that seemed to have long-term effects on me. However, because I can't say exactly how the medications that I took affected me at the physiological level, I don't think that I can realistically expect to find something that will get to the root of the medication-induced problems that I have.
I do hope that the right dose of ketamine will bring you some relief, but I wouldn't expect it to completely fix the long-term problems that you're having as a result of having taken medications. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to do something about the long-term medication effects that you're suffering from, but I do think that expecting your brain to be completely reset to the way it was before you took medications may not be very realistic. I don't mean to take away your feelings of hope, and I'm certainly not saying that your condition won't ever improve, but I know that I find it more realistic to seek out treatments that might ease some of my symptoms instead of seeking out a complete cure that doesn't seem to exist -- at least not at this point in time. I hope that if ketamine doesn't ultimately work out for you that you keep looking for treatments that might potentially bring your feelings of well being close to what they were when you were feeling better.
Tomatheus
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Taking Abilify and 5 supplements
tomatheus.blogspot.com
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1016311
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120411/msgs/1016324.html