Q:  Feels Med Dosages Are Too High

Dr Phelps, I have been Bipolar most of my life and have been on many different medications, my question is I take the following medications and when I  take my medication I just can't function,  my main concern is the dosages being to high, I've talked to my Doctor and he doesn't seem to be to concern, I have other  medical problems as well and take medications for them as well. Here is what I take on a daily basic for my bipolar  Depakote ER 500mg four pills (2000mg) at bedtime, Abilify 10mg at bedtime, Lamictal 200mg in the morning, seroquel 100mg at bedtime, prozac 40mg in the morning I was taking 300mg of seroquel but he did cut it back to 100mg. 

Here is all other medications

Clartin 10mg daily, Cilostazol 100mg daily, Mirapex .125 mg daily, Macrodantin 50mg  daily, Cholestyramine powder 4 times a day, Ferrous 325mg a day, Nexisum 40 mg daily, premarin .625mg daily, actonel 35mg a week, Albuterol 90mcg every 4 hrs.  

When I take my medications I feel so ill all the time, Its is effecting my whole life.  

Dear Ms. W. --

In general, when people are concerned about their diagnosis or their treatment, they should feel all right about asking for a "second opinion".  A good doctor will not hesitate to go along with this -- particularly if the outcome, at the time, is not looking very good. 

So if you feel like your doctor is not listening to your concern about the medication and the doses, you could ask in a polite way about getting a second opinion from some other psychiatrist. It might be that he would be advised to stay on the same regimen that someone looked over your records.  But at least then you would know that both doctors thought that way.  

On the other hand, for some people the medical care system is such that getting a second opinion would be difficult.  In that case, you might have to ask the clinic supervisor or medical director how to go about doing this. At first you might be told that it is not possible. Unfortunately, I can't tell you whether by being persistent you might be able to obtain a second opinion, or not.  But as long as you are polite (the farther down this road you go, the more polite you might have to be) he might eventually succeed in your request. 

I hope that information proves to be useful.
 

Dr. Phelps




Published July, 2008