Mental Illness = Poorer Medical Care

i really haven’t noticed poorer care for me, but i know the standards, since i am an r.n. i have noticed, however that my 15 yr. old daughter receives poorer care.

i took her to the emergency room because she had a horrible cough. i had forgotten the cough syrup her regular doctor perscribes and we were out of state. the er doc was going to refuse a quick strep test because she was coughing and according to him, you don’t cough when you have strep. i forced him to do one, it did come back negative. when i requested the cough syrup she takes at home, he told me to buy some over the counter stuff. i explained that everything was formulated with sudafed and it would keep her up for 3 days. then i would have to deal with the backlash. he still refused. ended up perscribing some tussalon pearls, which did no good.

we ended up going home early. my daughter missed the next week of school because she was running a fever of 102-103 every day that week. what a nightmare that was.

she has also been ignored when she fell and broke her foot because she was so “histrionic”. not to mention when she bruised her knee so bad that she couldn’t walk and was told that ibuprofen should take care of it. we ended up at an orthopedist, both times.

if doctors would take off the stigma of having an emotional diagnosis, maybe more people would get help.

I agree with these findings. I recently went to the emergency room with chest pains, shortness of breath, and overall edema. The doctor didn’t even listen to my heart and lungs, let alone do an EKG. The nurse who triaged me didn’t even ask if I was allergic to latex! The next thing I know, the mental health social worker has come to see me. What was up with that?

I have a wonderful Doctor who treats me with a great deal humanity and professionalsim. I don’t feel that I’m slighted in any way because of the Bipolar Diagnosis, in fact, she is very kind and understanding. I would Recomend Dr. Cynthia Jordan of Gilbert Arizona to anyone, particularly those of us who tend to have complicated issues to work through.

I agree with these findings. First thing the Dr. sees is bipolar disorder and takes into consideration everything in the dx after that based on that. It doesn’t matter if it is a broken elbow, a need for a brain aneruersym dx or what…all is based first even a broken foot on the bipolar dx! Whats up with that?

I’m so defensive about being treated this way, that I’ll often preface my needs with “but you know I’m kind of a hypochondriac!” I need to change back to my female PCP who cared about me, even though it’s further across the city to drive.
I have a question! Don’t know if this is the right place. How do you know it’s time to change therapists? I was diagnosed 9 yrs. ago, & have been stable for 7 yrs. Have been told I’d always need talk therapy in addition to meds. I loved this doc for a long time, but I feel like now he knows me so well, he has stopped listening! He talks too much about himself, and seems to have an automatic answer for everything I bring up!

I am very aware of the difference in medical care. Two years ago I went into the hospital sweating and sick. I spent 4 days and they said it was seratonin syndrom. They sent me home. A week later I went back for 4 more days. Both times the doctors were fighting to get my chart to see what was going on. After 4 days, on a Friday, the doctor said they could not find anything wrong. He was sending me home. Just in time my psychiatrist, the greatest guy in the world, came in. He took one look at me and said I was too sick. After the weekend, the original doctor came in and announced that I had diabetes. Can you belive that one!

My psychiatrist and medical doctor work together. I don’t have a thyroid gland and my M.D. does the blood work, but my Psych. prescribes the medicine because thyroid imbalance can really through you into a tailspin.

My response to this is kind of sarcastic– “Duh! Who isn’t prejudged and treated more poorly specifically because of the BP Dx?”

I only mention I’m bipolar and list medications, if/when the doc is going to do a procedure or wants to add another med. I don’t want to with hold medical information, but I don’t want to give it up unless necessary, in order to avoid the prejudgment which I do believe leads to poorer quality of care.

When I was in the ER the doctor prescribed ibuprofen even though I insisted that it could cause harmful elevation of my lithium levels. She acted like I was stupid and insisted it would be fine and wouldn’t give me anything else. I left and just dealt with the pain with over the counter tylenol. My pdoc assured me I’d done the right thing and said that I should never take ibuprofen. I may have a mental illness, but I am not stupid.

Indeed!
when initially diagnosed by a GP, at forty years
of age, no blame was attributed to anti depressant I was prescribed, I having no prior need inclination nor treatment of such medication! Recovering from Psychosis I returned to work though still depressed!
I was referred to a Psychiatrist who instructed my wife to ensure I take his prescribed remedy of anti depressant with Lithium, else hospital. The dose increased over the phone as I worsened? Episode 2 followed and belated hospital, where diagnosed drug induced Psychosis. However my condition was ongoing unlike my marriage, and to some extent my life.

Before my bipolar disorder was accurately diagnosed I first diagnosed with just depression. I was in my mid twenties when I suddenly began having sharp shooting pains at my left temple. At the time I had an HMO, Humana, and when the pain lingered for about 24hrs and then continually returned I began a series of visits to the dr’s office and urgent care center. I realized what was going on when the dr sat down and, without bothering to assess me, the dr sat down and said, “Sometimes people with depression get pain like this…” First of all, I hadn’t had an episode of depression in some time and wasn’t currently being treated, just had a history of it. Second, I was an RN and knew this was NOT that kind of pain. Months of being blown off and the pain became more and more unrelenting, excruciating. As soon as I was able to I switched to a better insurance. Within two weeks I was in a neurosurgeon’s office discussing my options of treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, a very painful, very real diagnosis in which the nerve serving the face misinterprets benign stimulation as something painful. Meds didn’t work and I ended up having surgery to put tiny sponges between the nerve the two blood vessels wrapped around & compressing. Boom, like magic, the pain was gone. Yeah, it was depression. *rolling my eyes* When all was said and done I sent that crappy dr a letter and told him he’d better look at patients with psych histories a little differently.

I live in a very small town with what I call small town mentality. I switched doctors after getting fed up with one who insisted that every time I came in it was for “depression”, and she would always put that on my chart. I avoid my local hospital ER b/c when I had an asthma attack they refused to give me a breathing treatment once they realized I had bipolar. When I was visiting in Missouri I had to go to the ER and was amazed at how they treated me-they listened, did tests, and sure enough I had a kidney infection!

I have suffered from depression for fouteen years and I know from first hand experience that when ever I disclose that fact that I suffer from depression to a doctor nine times out of ten that automatic diagnosis is that “depression is causing this” whatever the illness I is that I may be suffering from. My G.I doctor acually told me that my constipation was caused by depression. I wasnt even suffering from depression at the time I saw him in the office. Another E.R doctor told me that my chronic migraines were due to my depression. NOT TRUE, my actual diagnisis for my migraines were due to swelling of my brain. I have found that any time you tell a doctor that you suffer from depression they automatically diagnose your ailment as deprression caused. This is scary because God forbid you have a serious illness you will probably be misdiagnosed. Doctors need to become more educated on this illness that plagues so many people.

I take ibuprofen and am on lithium. I am just very careful. I just take 400mg once or twice/day. I also take an ace inhibitor which can raise lithium levels. I had trouble with increased lithium levels when taking Aleve

I very reciently went to the er. The Dr. did diagnos what what was happening to me,but on the same note.He did state that this is an emergency room. To me it was an emergency. I had been having anumber of varying symptoms for over a month. I have confronted for myself what I was avoiding in my relationship with another. What a difference it has made in me.I do have bipolar,but it is not always the cause of my physical aligments.ther’s alot more to people than symptoms. I think we need to dig into all areas of who we are as people. For me I found alot of healing for my self and I’m better able to live with the bipolar and myself and others.

This doesn’t surprise me. My mother has panic disorder and terminal cancer. When she entered hospice, we of course disclosed her problems, as well as her history of substance abuse.

Even though she is constantly nauseated, she is denied the various medications, because “they are all habit-forming.” The nurse told me she would just have to suffer on her own, to “learn to deal with it and not seek attention.” She was given methadone for pain, but her complaints of breakthrough pain have been dismissed as still more attention-seeking, or as anxiety about her illness.

Luckily, she is being discharged from hospice. Maybe she’ll get better treatment. But it makes me so angry that simply because of her history, she is being denied care.