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Old Apr 07, 2013, 02:05 PM
ultramar ultramar is offline
Poohbah
 
Member Since: Mar 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 1,486
Quote:
Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse View Post
Mine is the same way! At first he gave me a diagnosis of BP-NOS (a wastebasket dx if I ever heard one!) and depression; the depression dx went away last summer when he first saw me in a hypomanic state. BP-NOS stayed around until I finally asked him at the last visit what the hell kind of bipolar I really am. He said that the "diagnosis" part was actually more about how insurance companies pay doctors for their services, and hemmed and hawed for a bit: "welllllllllll......"

He still wanted to stick with NOS because I apparently don't fit into any neat little pigeon-hole, but admitted he doesn't like making a definitive dx anyway. He finally conceded that I'm somewhere between 1 and 2, but he leans toward 2 because the only manic/psychotic episode I've ever had occurred when I was on Wellbutrin a couple of years ago. However, he won't rule out BP 1 either........and round and round it goes. Maybe I'll never know!
Ugh, I just don't get these psychiatrists and their lack of desire to diagnose (re lack of desire to do their job). I've heard this from other people (and I think I posted about it some time ago). Psychiatrists are paid boatloads of money, and my understanding is that part of their skill-set is being diagnosticians. Also, if you're prescribing heavy-duty drugs, I think there's an obligation to explain why. I just think the attitude is a bit obnoxious frankly -anyway, I'm sorry about his hemming and hawing. From what these psychiatrists are saying, it sounds like if insurance didn't exist, they'd just never diagnose at all. I guess, as the platitude goes, if the treatment is helping you, the diagnosis doesn't matter.