Posted by Krissy P on March 15, 2003, at 11:34:55
In reply to Re: Does your Pdoc believe your side-effects?? » Eggy, posted by Tabitha on March 15, 2003, at 2:43:25
God, amen to this, you sound like me and my experiences. I had gobbs of hair fall out when I was on Depakote, gained 30 Lbs in a month. Geeeeeez. My pdoc totally ignored it, as he did a lot of times, and said oh no no no no-I'm like yes yes yes. Frustrating! We know our body's better than anyone else, I wish docs would listen a little better.
Thanks for a great post!
Kristen
==================================================================================================> No, not always. Mine has been very skeptical of side effects I report. My hair fell out in huge amounts while on effexor, and he told me it's only a 1 in 1000 side effect so was not likely the med. Maybe so, but do you think the side effect profiles on hair loss could possibly be accurate-- when the clinical trials are short term and hair loss doesn't occur for months after starting the med? I doubt it. I totally freaked when my hair fell out-- thought I was getting some freak female pattern baldness. It sure would have saved me much mental anguish to know it was likely just a med side effect.
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> I also told him antidepressants kill my artistic creativity, and he told me that's not the meds, it's breakthrough depression. Which I know is wrong because I was depressed more before the meds (obviously) but my artistic creativity was still functioning. On the ADs I just lose interest in making stuff, don't get spontaneous ideas anymore, and don't respond as strongly to visual art and music. Why would he disbelieve this? I don't know, but it sure pissed me off. So I did not bother to report that the ADs apparently also made me lose interest in religion. My mind just doesn't seem to need to go there anymore.
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> I also reported other health problems including chronic GI bloat and inflammation in my joints, and he did not relate these to meds. He suggested I have some other health problem causing general inflammation. Maybe, but I'm inclined to think it could be the meds too.
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> We got into a pattern where he disbelieves my reported side effects, then when I resist upping the dose, or adding more, or want to reduce meds, he suggests that I'm really addicted to my high moods. Which I'm not-- my hypomanic behavior embarasses me. All these sort of low-grade side effects really reduce the quality of life over time, and I'm sick of having weird health problems crop up, worrying myself over them, and then have them be med side effects nobody warned me to look for. Wow, I'm finally remembering why I started looking for another doctor.
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> You'd think pdocs' response to patient reports of side effects would include a little more curiousity instead of total skepticism. Sometimes I think it's the bias in their training against anecdotal evidence. They're naturally skeptical of individual experience, until it's been documented in an approved, double-blind study. Problem is, the med studies are short term. Plus, some of these weird effects are stuff you wouldn't even think to associate with the med, so it's not going to get reported. And arent' they probably questionnaires anyway? Have you ever tried to fill out a questionnaire, and none of the options are really right? I just doubt they're really picking up all the side effects with such studies.
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> OK I'm rambling. It's my major gripe with the whole pill-popping thing. The cure isn't always better than the symptoms once you add in all the side effects, and I don't think docs appreciate that.
poster:Krissy P
thread:209199
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030314/msgs/209379.html