I was talking to a family member today who is taking an anti-depressant and two different mood stabilizers. This combination is working well for her. She wonders why she has to keep seeing her pdoc every 6 weeks since everything is fine. I urged her to keep seeing her the pdoc, as her reaction to the drugs could change, and her life events could change, making her more or less mentally well, so her need for meds might change too.

She had never considered this, thinking that once she found a good combination of drugs, she could just stay on them for life. Her therapist (not her pdoc) is recommending she tail off the drugs and see how she is actually doing "under there." It made me wonder how often people scale back their meds use to do a "self check" and see where they're at in their need for meds. If one keeps taking a lot of meds and never tries to lessen or go without, how will they know if they have improved or not? It seems like the meds could actually mask wellness.

Anyway, we were talking about this somewhat philosophical point today. How often do people go off meds (or lessen them) to do a self check for continued medication necessity? Is this something pdocs recommend from time to time?