In a global survey, most patients were aware of risks associated with their mental illnesses and medications (especially weight gain). However, they also reported they received very little information from their caregivers regarding managing those risks.
Yet there are things psychiatrists and other mental health care providers could do to help, such as encouraging exercise and even working with the patient's primary care doctor to set up nutrition counseling, a stop smoking program, and other wellness activities.
What about changing medications to combat weight problems? This is a tricky subject. If a medication is working well at stabilizing a patient, a doctor may well want the patient to work at lifestyle and diet changes while staying on that medication. It's not impossible to lose weight while taking a medication that causes weight gain.
If you have a health problem such as your weight that is related to bipolar disorder or its treatment, does your doctor address it? Does he or she listen to your concerns? Has the doctor done anything to help you improve your health?
References:
McIntyre, Robert S. Overview of Managing Medical Comorbidities in Patients With Severe Mental Illness. J Clin Psychlopedia. CME Institute. Web.7 Sep 2009.
McIntyre, Robert S. Managing Weight Gain in Patients With Severe Mental Illness. J Clin Psychlopedia. CME Institute. Web.7 Sep 2009.
My best friend was severely BP. I’m sure that if it wasn’t for her BP, she would have been taken seriously when she complained for several years of being unable to have a bowel movement. By the time someone did take her seriously enough to run tests, it was too late. It turned out to be caused by stage 4 colon cancer and she died a month later
To Tracee above me … I’m very sorry for the loss of your friend.
I have bipolar II, along with severe rheumatoid arthritis and an overactive bladder. Talk about miserable! Anyway, although I show serious joint deformities and am in need of 2 total knee replacements, my primary will not discuss pain meds or something for the bladder issues. When asked, her reply was, “Let’s wait and see what your psychiatrist says.”
This leaves me in a real dilemma. My rheumatologist does not prescribe pain meds to anyone, my primary will not prescribe them for me because she thinks my pain and bladder concerns are “all in my head…”
My psychiatrist feels that my depression is making my pain more serious than it is (possible) but he’s wanting to concentrate mainly on medicating me with anti-seizure drugs alone to stabilize my moods rather than address one simple point: Depression increases the amount of pain one feels. Chronic pain (along with rheumatoid arthritis) causes depression. As long as I am in pain, my moods aren’t going to stabilize any time soon. As long as I am in pain, I will be depressed. As long as I am depressed, my pain levels will be increased. I am caught in a vicious cycle.
Treat the pain, and maybe the depression will lift. Treat the depression, and maybe the pain will be decreased. Personally, I think they need to treat them both with something mild to start. As of this moment, no one is doing much of anything, and I am becoming more frustrated by the day. It seems as if no one wants to address one simple fact: I have been diagnosed with a serious crippling, painful disease. My joints are becoming deformed and are needing replaced. This hurts me physically, and also emotionally because it has robbed me of the life I once led.Of course I am depressed. I am also in need of pain meds, but no one wants to give them to me because I have a mental illness.
Exercise? I asked for water therapy, hoping it would be easier for me than regular PT. This was denied. Why? I haven’t a clue. I suppose it is because, as a bipolar, I am assumed to be a hypochondriac, as well. I simply want to feel better, and as water soothes my soul and is easiest on the joints, this seems the logical course to take.
It’s a nice notion, having doctors work together for the patient’s best interest, but in reality it’s very unrealistic. To them, we are simply a name on a chart. Sorry for the rant, but when suffering a mental illness, no one really takes us seriously.
I have 5 doctors that actually work together to help me manage my many physical and psychiatric conditions, including BP II. They all have private practices, and don’t work in the same clinic or anything.
While they don’t all talk to each other, they are very respectful of the treatment being provided by the others, and should the need arise, every single one of them is willing to talk to another. Each and every one of them asks me about what the others are doing at every appointment.
For instance, my pain doctor and my pdoc are well aware how depression and pain are related, how the side effects of the meds for pain can effect my mood, and so on. Each realizes that I am going to have both pain and bp for the rest of my life, and that just waiting for one or the other to go away isn’t going to work. Also, these doctors believe me when I say something is wrong, and not a single one of them has uttered the words, “it’s all in your head.”
Since I have found this team of doctors, my physical and mental health have done a total 180. I have gone from everything getting worse to everything getting better. I now have hope for the future, and I must say that this has done wonders for my depression and it has made the constant stream of suicidal thoughts go away. The difference is absolutely amazing.
I am very fortunate to be in this situation. Good care has made a tremendous difference. I just wish I wasn’t in the extreme minority. I want others to know that there is hope, and that there are a few good doctors out there who do things right. I have extraordinary luck to have found 5 of them. But you know what? It’s about time. I deserve it.