3 ms·

I have started to take a more active role in my wife's ongoing treatment for this very reason. While I generally like her doctor, his willingness to bounce fro

by bspn 9y ago

I have started to take a more active role in my wife's ongoing treatment for this very reason. While I generally like her doctor, his willingness to bounce from drug-to-drug in an effort to treat her depression and anxiety is incredibly troubling for me as someone who grew up in a society where medication was seen as a last resort in the treatment cycle. She has now been on Xanax, Cymbalta, Lyrica, Klonopin, Ativan .... I could go on. Every time she begins a new medicine or comes off an existing one is a trying time for both of us as the side effects (both mental and physical) can be incredibly brutal.

pjc50 9y ago
Over what kind of time period is that? You're definitely not supposed to change drugs every few months. For me the scattershot approach is most alarming; it would be far better if there were some kind of in-vitro test to see what would be best rather than "suck it and see". I've seen a few other people have problems with that.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  From what I heard, it is this way because there is currently no better way of determining which psychiatric drug will work best besides going for trial and error.
- bspn 9y ago
  It's been over 2-3 years, but I would say on average her regime changes every 3-4 months. We saw another specialist recently who introduced us to a test that does a genetic screen to help identify what medicine should theoretically be the most effective. Here's hoping it works! EDIT: the service is called GeneSight: https://genesight.com/ https://genesight.com/
DanBC 9y ago
> I have started to take a more active role in my wife's ongoing treatment You might be interested in the English NICE website, which sets out some evidence based standards for treatment of various disorders. Here's what they say for general anxiety: Recommendations for treatment: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113 Quality recommendations: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs53 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs53 Pathways: https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/generalised-anxiety-disorder https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/generalised-anxiety-di...
mercer 9y ago
What non-medication treatments have you been trying, if any? And which had the most positive effect, in your estimation? To be clear, I'm asking this purely out of curiosity, not because I think medication is a bad solution or anything like that!

by bspn 9y ago

pjc50 9y ago

Over what kind of time period is that? You're definitely not supposed to change drugs every few months. For me the scattershot approach is most alarming; it would be far better if there were some kind of in-vitro test to see what would be best rather than "suck it and see". I've seen a few other people have problems with that.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
From what I heard, it is this way because there is currently no better way of determining which psychiatric drug will work best besides going for trial and error.
bspn 9y ago
It's been over 2-3 years, but I would say on average her regime changes every 3-4 months. We saw another specialist recently who introduced us to a test that does a genetic screen to help identify what medicine should theoretically be the most effective. Here's hoping it works! EDIT: the service is called GeneSight: https://genesight.com/ https://genesight.com/

DanBC 9y ago

> I have started to take a more active role in my wife's ongoing treatment You might be interested in the English NICE website, which sets out some evidence based standards for treatment of various disorders. Here's what they say for general anxiety: Recommendations for treatment: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113 Quality recommendations: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs53 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs53 Pathways: https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/generalised-anxiety-disorder https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/generalised-anxiety-di...

mercer 9y ago

What non-medication treatments have you been trying, if any? And which had the most positive effect, in your estimation? To be clear, I'm asking this purely out of curiosity, not because I think medication is a bad solution or anything like that!