Posted by mxrider on September 16, 2004, at 10:38:00
Hello all
Some people expressed interest in my visit to the Amen clinic so I thought I'd post a report. I just received my final evaluation yesterday with one of their Pych docs after going through the 3-day process. Day 1 is a 2 hour interview w/ a historian to review your whole life history, in detail, then it was on to a "concentration" SPECT brain scan. (the details on the process are available on the website...amenclinic.com). Day two is the "at rest" scan, and Day 3 is your final 2 hour consultation with the doctor.
Now, I should say right now that, one of the reasons I chose to do this is that, I don't think I've had a TOTAL of 2 hours of time w/ my new HMO pdoc, in the 4 MONTHS, I've been seeing him!! In fact, at my last app. when the doctor came out to get me, one of his pharmacy reps(who was repeatedly told that the doctor was too busy to see him) walked in front of me and used up most of my time...this was the last straw, so to speak.But, I digress, my scans cleary show that I have overactivity in my deep limbic system causing depression (no suprise there!), overactive basal ganglia (anxiety, knew that one too), obvious damage to the temporal lobe functioning causing mood instability, i.e. BPII (maybe, told my other doc I'd long suspected this, he replied that the hypomania I described was just me in my "normal" state...I don't think so!), and finally, decreased activity in the PFC during concentration...possible ADD.
So, I now have a recommendation for treatment as follows...Start w/ a mood stabilizer (starting w/ Neurontin, but I may ask to switch to Depakote later), followed by the additon of an AD(effexor), and later, if I still have problems w/ concentration(I do), add a low dose of Adderall.
OK, this is a pretty run of the mill treatment program, right? And we still don't know for sure if these meds are going to be the "ideal combination" right? Well, yes and yes, however, at the rate I was proceeding with the other doc it would have taken 6 months minimum of torture to get to this. By "torture" I mean, "here, take this Lexapro and see me in a month", "oh, that didn't work? here, take this Remeron and see me in a month"...etc.
So, was it worth the $3,000 bucks you ask? Well, for me it was. Number 1, I now have some affirmation to what I have suspected, and suffered from for over 20 years, and, number 2, if it gets me well and back to work even a month sooner (I have been having a major depressive episode for the last 6 months and haven't been able to work) it will pay for itself and then some.
I hope I haven't bored anyone too much:)
Chris
poster:mxrider
thread:391481
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040915/msgs/391481.html