Quote:
Originally Posted by bluemountains
Hi Genetic,
I'm sorry I didn't explain my treatment fully. My pdoc and t aren't in disagreement. They just perform their chosen fields in the ways they were trained. My pdoc is not a trained therapist; therefore, while she cares for me as a patient, her focus in that care is to make sure that my prescribed meds are working and how alcohol use will impact the effectiveness of the drugs. Meanwhile, my therapist, who knows my personal history and needs, helps me to keep negative behaviors, whether these be alcohol use or something else, in check.
Neither of these professionals are in contact with each other on a consistent basis. There currently is no need. At times there has been, but this isn't over alcohol use.
My point in my last post was to say that we all bring many experiences with our advice. Even with research and articles that some have cited, an influx of information is presented. In the case of the young poster, my advice was to use moderation if he chooses to drink. Also, his question should be presented to one of the professionals that he works with.
Bluemountains
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Besides the T and the p-doc, there is also the GP. It is the GP's job to see to the optimal overall health of her patients. The question as to the alcohol consumption needs to first go to the GP, because alcohol consumption affects very many areas that are non-psychiatric. There is no reason to be fixated on psychiatry. We still need to live long and happy lives, and alcohol plays a role both in the "long" and the "happy" part of the equation. Alcohol in moderation improves cognitive function across ages (
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/InT...092766793.html - a big British study and
not in the elderly) and does a host of other good things. Some psychiatrists do care about the overall health of their patients but many just look at the psychiatric symptoms in isolation. So the first inquiry needs to go to the GP. That is what I did when I was taking up wine (again, wine because I like it and dislike other types of alcohol - other types of alcohol including beer work just as well for the cognitive function and the like, so I do not want to introduce a bias in favor of wine) as a preventative measure. She said it was a good idea and deferred to the p-doc for drug interactions only. Her approach is evidence-based, which it should be.
So while T and p-docs are important, at least one medical professional needs to be in charge of the full picture. And we, too, need to think about the full picture because even though we have bp, we are still people.