I really think it's worth spending the time and the effort to be an informed health care consumer. I do take a lot of psych meds, but I've researched them all thoroughly and when I last needed a meds adjustment my Dr. and I both agreed on what med to raise.

I have an interesting cardio problem, I have an extremely high resting heart rate, it averages between 99 and 103 bpm, but I have low blood pressure. My Dr. doesn't know what to do about it, she's worried about the stress on my heart from it racing all the time, but says she can't put me on beta blockers because I'd be passing out all the time. My last BP was 90 over 60.

Fortunately my family Dr. isn't generally known as a pill pusher she encourages lifestyle changes first, and I'm lucky my pdoc insists on an annual blood work up, ECG etc to make sure my meds aren't messing me up.

But even though I have good dr.'s I believe it's my responsibility to research everything and make sure I'm totally comfortable taking it, before just accepting a prescription, particularly as some of the meds I'm on have some pretty serious drug interaction potential.

--splitimage