who do u divulge?

hope this is ok to post here. if not please move to another forum, please. do you always divulge to other physicians about meds you're taking for your MI? there are times i feel a doc deals with me differently when i list those meds. i know other meds can interact with different meds, so what do u do? looking for your input.

If the doctor may be prescribing for me, then yes, I do tell all of my meds, for the sake of my own safety.

Definitely. Yes. I tell them everything. They have to know what they're dealing with in case any of your meds might be causing a secondary problem or in case they need to prescribe something. To do otherwise is to jeopardize your own safety and treatment.

I know some people report that physicians treat them differently when they know there is a psych diagnosis. I have personally not yet run into that (although I suppose I may at some point). I state my diagnosis and write down my meds matter-of-factly and with confidence and find that I am treated appropriately. So far that is.

In what ways have you found doctors treat you differently after learning about an MI diagnosis? Do they write off symptoms without exploring them carefully enough? Do you find you have to be extra assertive to get the care you need?

For my own safety, and because drug interactions are very important for a doctor to know about, yes, I do.

Yes, for the same reasons the other folks said.

I haven't found that my physicians treat me differently because of my disclosure of a psych diagnosis. At least in what they prescribe and test for. It's possible that their demeanor is a little more restrained than what it might be with people who don't have a psych dx. Depends on the doctor.

Many GP's now appear to have been trained to be front-line pdocs. Willing to prescribe psych meds of almost any kind. I would guess that what I experience as "restrained demeanor" may well be a patient's perception of what is actually closer attention and harder thought.

Do I in any way feel that my treatment has in any way been hindered or ignored? No, not at all.

Take care!

Yes!

At the Military medical center where I go for everything by my depression, once the intake person sees my list of meds it is protical (sp??) to ask if I feel like hurting myself or others. They do that every time.

So far only one primary care doc has been 'different' with me I think. But I'm pretty sure that it is becuase he missed so much in his quest to treat my depression himself rather than refer me out. Once he did that we had a different understanding about the fact that I would get the treatment I needed - even when he thought he was doing ok.

I have several things going on like kidney disease, so I'm extra careful when a doc gives me a new script. I ask all sorts of questions before I'll take it.

I know I would divulge it to all doctors and EMTs, but I don`t know whether or not I would divulge it to a first aider, especially a coworker, although I guess they are health professionals.

I tell doctors all of it, and I remind them if they are about to write me a prescription. I do sometimes feel they treat me differently because of this, but I can't tell if it's me or them. Mostly it works out well.

Yes, I do disclose all meds,

However a number of times I have been treated differently because of my dx of bipolar 1 with psychosis NOS. I have been dealing with chronic pain, chronic headaches and chronic digestive problems for years and it seemly always gets chalked up to " must be in your head". So I am still suffering without any answers. I've in the last year developed what looks like a lupus butterfly rash across my nose and cheeks. But I've given up after years of trying to get any headway.

I'm glad to hear others have been luckier in this way. Having experienced this I would still say yes to disclose your meds to a prescribing dr.

Yes definatly tell all docotrs you see what meds your taking ..So many medications cant be taken together with out massive sideeffects etc . If your regular doctor treats you differently due to your Mental health issues then maybe you need a NEW doctor .. ask your Pdoc who they reccomend .

Good Luck

I tell all of my doctors what meds I am on.

I have been treated differently because of my diagnosis though. Went to the ER after a car accident and even though I had my seatbelt on they wanted to know if I was attempting suicide, and then they brought up my depression no less than 6 times

Maybe your doctor is taking antidepressants too.

I tell all my medications to any treating doctor or person who will be prescribing meds or is taking notes for the doctor. That means I shared all my meds after my car accident because if they were giving me other meds (which they ended up doing) they needed to know if anything was going to interact with my meds. Since drug interactions can be deadly I always share everything I am on.

I feel like I'm the only one who is going to answer NO. I DO NOT tell every doctor.

An Example... I saw a dermatologist the other day. I didn't list my psych meds because I am embarrassed #1 And #2 she isn't going to give me anything to take orally. So why does she need to know.

My PCP knows though. I do feel like they treat me differently... or they wonder why am I on Ablify.... cuz Abilify is such a strong med.

Let me play devil's advocate here.

1. Some medications can affect skin - cause rashes or increase sun sensitivity. Even a dermatologist needs to know what you're on.
2. Just because she isn't prescribing anything orally now is no guarantee she will never need to. She would need to know your other medications, and would probably wonder why you didn't list them at the outset.
3. We all want to be able to trust our doctors and have their trust, right? If we want respect from them, we need to provide them with complete and accurate information. Otherwise, it might get awkward later if they find out that we withheld information from them.
4. Many of us may be embarrassed, but that's just us. The doctors themselves are most likely unfazed.

About primary care doctors. Like it or not, sometimes we have to provide explanation and information to our primary care doctors if we're on something other than the most common meds. Primary care doctors won't necessarily be up to date on psych treatments - they have a lot of information to know about general medicine and they are only human. I had to explain to one doctor that my combination is suitable for major depression and not just bipolar disorder. Now he knows something he didn't know before. It's too bad , but it's just the way it is sometimes. We become the experts on our own illnesses - at least as they affect us.

Just curious - in what way do you feel your primary care doctor treats you differently? Is it bad enough to change doctors?

Rockgal

Yes, I tell my other doctors that I have a psych condition and am on meds for it. I've gotten varied reactions. When I told her I had been dx'd, my PCP at home freaked out. She asked me if I was thinking about hurting myself several times, told me about an emergency center at a local hospital I could go to if I felt suicidal, and when I saw her in the hallway after the appt. hugged me and told me to "be well!". All very kind of her, though a little overboard. The MD I see at the university health center did eventually attribute my fatigue to depression, but not after looking at nearly everything else first. (I love this doctor. She is so thorough. One of my friends saw her, and told me she was annoyed because the doctor "spent 15 minutes describing everything that [she, friend] did not have!".) A NP I saw at the same university heath clinic wrote my fatigue off as a depressive symptom almost immediately.

So, health care providers definitely vary in their comfort with treating psych patients for non-psych issues. Unfortunately, many people with MI have serious physical health issues, which I have heard are partially caused by non-psych MDs who didn't take a patient's complaints seriously enough until the patient's physical illness became really severe. So it's REALLY important for all of us with MI to ensure that we are being treated fairly by our docs, and that our physical complaints aren't being attributed to our MI without good, medical reason. If your doctor doesn't take you as seriously as he would any other patient, find another doctor.

well I know anticonvulsants can affect your skin... thats why I can't take them. I don't have any issues with my skin ever. I was just having a mole removed the other day. So I didn't list my psych meds. And I work in skin care so I guess I feel like I know alot about skin and especially my skin... like if a med was making my skin sensitive I'd know. I hated lamictal for that very reason.

And as far as the pcp treating me differently.... It's prob all in my head. I have social anxiety where I wonder always what people are thinking about me. I am embarrassed of my MI so I try to hide it as much as I can. I downplay it to her. She doesn't know about my BPD because I feel like alot of people don't understand that. I always just say I have depression.

I tell every time they ask - including the dentist. You never know when they're going to need those details. And they're all professionals, bound by HIPPA in the US. I haven't (yet) been treated differently, but it's a recent thing, so I guess I'll see...

I actually have a Medic Alert bracelet as well. On the underside, it just says "Bipolar disorder" and has an 800 number and a code for emergency responders to get my medical and prescription info.

That might seem a little overboard, but I have in fact been hit by a bus before. That kind of stuff does actually happen. Even before my dx, I wore a RoadID wristband with basic info and emergency contacts on it when I went out hiking.

I stopped telling other Drs unless they already know about my MI.

I disclose all my meds to all my healthcare providers - too much risk of interaction not to, and some of the meds I'm on can affect eyesight so it's important for my eye Dr. to know about them, so that I can be properly monitored. My dentist also knows all about my drugs and my addiction history since he refused to give me freezing until he new about my liver enzymes.

My family Dr. doesn't treat me any differently due to my Dx., but then I don't go to her a lot.

I have been treated a bit differently at an urgent care centre when I had to go there for a badly infected cut, but that was on only one occassion - all the other times I've gone there, I've been treated really well. I have heard some horror stories about some hospitals, so there are some hospitals I just won't go to.

I did have one really funny experience with a young Dr. who was really good though. It was when I was in urgent care for the badly infected cut on my butt and she decided that I needed IV antibiotics. She wanted to put an IV shunt in my hand so that I could just keep coming in nightly for antibiotics, but she absolutely refused to do it, until I convinced her that I'd never used IV drugs. I actually had to convince her that I was just a plain old alcoholic who had never done any other drugs. It was pretty funny as I argued with her, lying there on my stomach with my bare butt sticking up in the air.

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