Posted by Racer on March 20, 2007, at 16:17:16
In reply to Re: Something I don't understand..., posted by football on March 20, 2007, at 14:09:25
> If you do enough research, you will absolutely know more about a drug then your doc.
One can certainly learn a great deal about individual drugs, but most of us don't have enough context to prescribe for ourselves. There's so much more than just knowing that Drug A is serotinergic, and should therefore treat symptoms X, Y, and Z. Medical school teaches doctors the context in which they're working. Many may not research individual drugs, necessarily -- consider how many drugs are out there, for how many sorts of conditions, after all -- but they do know more about the interconnections between different systems within the human body.
And anyway, the fact that many doctors don't know about every drug on the market is why one does better seeing a psychopharmacologist for psychotropic medications, rather than a GP. A pdoc may not know everything about every drug, but he/she should know enough to make some educated choices in treating mental illness.
>
> Plus, only you know your body.I may think I know my body, but that doesn't mean that my perceptions are accurate. I could tell you a dozen stories from my own history, when I thought something which I later learned wasn't true. And my depression often colors the way I see the rest of the world, as well. I've come to the conclusion that my doctors really do know my body better than I do in many ways. I can safely say that i trust my current pdoc to be able to extrapolate my reactions to various drugs, based on my reactions to similar drugs, better than I can. That's why I pay him to make those educated choices.
This is a topic that comes up from time to time. Frankly, I think everyone here probably has an opinion about it, and I doubt that many of us will be swayed much by any arguments, for or against.
Maybe it's best for me to say that I've offered my own experience and opinion, for whatever they're worth.
And to remind everyone to keep it civil, even if you disagree with another poster.
poster:Racer
thread:742486
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070320/msgs/742580.html