[MarleyCat]

So I have been meeting with my T every week for the last month or so and due to my decision to start AD's she suggested I meet up with the pdoc in her office. Can anyone offer advice or insight into what she will cover>?

The appointment is an hour and half and I'm suuuper nervous about it even though it isn't for a few weeks. Will she diagnose me with something? My T will not give me any sort of official diagnosis as she doesn't like doing it for some reason. Will she just ask me a hundred questions or do I have to come prepared with stuff I want to ask/talk about? So far my medical doctor has been dealing with my meds so I guess I just don't know what the pdoc will cover and why it will take 90 minutes.

Thanks in advance!

[nervous puppy]

That's a typical time frame for a first time pdoc appt. based on my past experience. Which, I might add, is not a lot. Most recently for me was a new pdoc about 6 months ago. She wanted to get a history of what meds I had taken, how long, when, how much, etc. They will want to know why you are in therapy, how you feel, how long you have felt that way, why (if you know why). They will have a list of questions. Essentially I've found that all three of mine asked the same list of questions, but they all phrased them differently, so they sounded different, but really weren't. They are just trying to get a quick assessment of who you are and what your issues might be.

You should not have to prepare for anything other than maybe a history of medications. Just be as honest as you can when answering the questions.

I get nervous when meeting new people, especially if I know I will have to talk about myself. Really, though, this should be an easy appointment, and the pdoc will not try to push you if it makes you uncomfortable. At least they shouldn't.

Good Luck!

[ruh roh]

No need to prepare anything ahead of time, unless you've got a medication history, then a list of meds and your reaction to them is important to bring. Each one I've ever seen is pretty much they same: they ask a lot of questions related to symptoms, history of symptoms (length of time you experience them, times of day, related stressors), family history of mental illness, trauma history if it exists, daily functioning, and that sort of thing. It would take more than one session to get a diagnosis, though s/he will need to write something down if you're going to start meds, so it could be depressive symptoms or something like that. Nothing that would take more time to verify, like bipolar.

[woods girl]

My meds doc asked a lot of questions similiar to my T did when I started with him, but the meds doc didn't go into "talk therapy", it was just to get an overview of my situation. He pretty much took my word for what my T and I thought the issues were (depression, anxiety, etc). It really was just to focus on meds, not counseling

My intake appointment with my psychiatrist was just 30mins.

He wanted to know my medication history, if any. If I had a family history of mental illness or substance abuse. My symptoms and their duration and how they have affected my functioning - work , social, etc.