Pdocs, P.A.'s, Nurse practitioners, and all Doctors, HATE being told what medications and treatments to prescribe by their patients. The patient didn’t spend ten plus years in medical training learning his/ her trade. No. Let the doctor decide what meds to prescribe for you. That is their job. Not yours. Your only job is to let the pdoc know your symptoms and let them know what meds you have been on, in the past, and what meds have worked on your symptoms, in the past, and that is it.
I’m speaking as a former hospital R.N. and I know these things.
Over the years I have found what works for me. I think it’s a good starting point. If a doctor recommended a lot of changes all at once I would find another doctor.
My psychiatrist looks at my meds and thinks I am bipolar and asks me how my mood swings are and wants to prescribe me Depakote.
I have to remind her I am schizophrenic and don’t have mood swings but then she recommended Latuda and I added that and it helps a lot so I think I am open to what they have to say.
I totally disagree with that and I don’t care at all about how a psychiatrist feels. What is important is how the patient feels. The psychiatrist feeling is not important at all.
And it is normal for the patient to inform himself about the different medications that exist since it is him/her who will be taking it and who will feel the beneficial effects as well as the bad side effects. It is normal for the patient to question the psychiatrist as well as to challenge his/her decision, because we are talking about the patient life after all!
And the psychiatrist will see the patient for not more than 45 min, but the patient will have to live with his/her decision for months!
The psychiatrists are extremely well paid. We are talking about at least 500 000$ a year. If they can’t support being challenged by well informed patients, they should just change their job for another one!
I have no sympathy at all for psychiatrists, they just have to do their job, as I’m doing mine. The only thing that is important is the patient!
I think that most good psychiatrists want to hear informative feedback from their patients.
They like to know what was taken in the past and they want to know what or doesn’t work.
I will suggest which meds to try to my psychiatrist but ultimately she has the final decision.
Insecure doctors don’t allow feedback, but competent doctors welcome it.
Most psychiatrists don’t make half a million a year but my current psychiatrist probably makes more than this easily.
In the province of Québec (where I live), simple family doctors have a mean salary of 244 674$ and specialists like psychiatrists have a mean salary of 409 096$. That means that a psychiatrist who has a lot of years in experience can easily have a salary that is over 500 000$.
And they deserve it. Look how much money, time and effort they spent on their schooling. If you want to make as much, you’re welcome to go to med school.
Doctors in general make good money.
Psychiatrists are one of the lower paid medical specialists.
Dermatologists make a heck of a lot more money.
So do Cardilogists etc…
There are many jobs that is needing as much of study and effort and that doesn’t guarantee you a salary of 400 000$. Many people have a doctorate and don’t win more than 50 000$.
i asked my doc to put me on certain meds multiple times before i dont think it really bothers him but maybe i should leave it to him since none of the meds i picked have done much
Poor choice?! It’s not a poor choice, it’s a question of doing what you like in your life. I had a teacher in my computer science study and he has a doctorate and he studied at least as much as a doctor and he chose to be a college teacher because that is what he like to do in life, to teach. And I don’t think he should win more than 60 000$ and he is an incredible teacher. His contribution to the society is as much important as a psychiatrist.
I personally think that everybody has an equal contribution to the society as soon as you have a job and it is unfortunate that some persons have a salary of 500 000$ while others have only 40 000$. I’m a software developer and I don’t think that any doctors or psychiatrists would be able to create complex algorithms as I do, as well as I would not be able to treat patients. We are all equal. No one should merit a better salary.
I had to change psychiatrist and doctor and my new ones were glad to know what had worked for me before. Their attitude was, “Don’t mess with success.”
Not as much demands for teachers?! Don’t you think a country need a lot of teachers?! Primary school teachers, high school teachers, college teachers, university teachers. And do I really need to talk about the importance of teachers?! They are responsible of training students to be valuable citizens and workers in the society.
And I just can talk about how much this teacher in particular has been important for me in becoming an extremely valuable software developer who contribute a lot to the society. I owe him a lot, at least as much as I owe my psychiatrist for making me healthy again.