an embarassing question

[adel_ezz]

a friend of my father told him if you can afford a trip to the USA so why don't you bring adel there to get an advise from a reputable center of BP. he said why not europe e.g France they are good in psychiatry. He said no medicine in the USA is advanced 100 years than europe.

Now i see our friends here in the forum tortured like me. So i gather there is no such thing as a western or wealthy bipolar and a "poor" one or middle-eastern like me living in an underdeveloped country in the middle of nowhere where the pdocs are no much different than shoemakers who happen to have heard of risperidone, anafranil, etc... and use them like popcorn. If the patient gets better then good for him whereas if he relapses or dies then he won't complain as he won't have enough energy to do so.

now do you think really that there exists a reputable centre somewhere in the world who has a solution to this illness. is there a breakthrough going on .... But i also know another friend of my father who happens to have a son with asperger (taking zyprexa and celexa) and he found an excuse to travel last summer to the USA and while there he sought an advise from a pdoc in NY. He paid him some 500 $ and stayed with him 15 minutes, and the result was that the meds are ok and no change needed. Helerious.

there is something wrong with this business of psych meds. All of the branches of medicine, they do MRI say, catscan, X-ray, blood test etc... to track an illness, the only  field in which the pdoc writes a script upon looking at your face for 5 minutes is psych illness. most likely what he writes is wrong.  

[ILADVOCATE]

Any psychiatric disability cannot be determined by exact test. That is still a fact but I would believe over time that will change. For myself when I was able to receive better care was when I decided to take back my own treatment and I called my local NAMI hotline and that's when I started seeing a psychopharmocologist. I was given a variety of names before I decided on the specific one I am seeing now. Even before I was on treatment that is experimental, I was on new medications as they were approved. That is not to say that is needed for other people but if people have any psychiatric disability that is treatment refractory that approach may be needed. What care people receive and the amount of time alloted to it often depends on the specific insurance they have and also has declined as the number of hospitals has been downsized but I believe a further discussion of that specific aspect would be appropriate to the healthcare forum. As regarding the treatment you receive in a hospital the best thing to do is to be familiar with the hospital in advance. Before my current recovery the psychiatrist I saw worked at a psych. hospital as well and I actually managed to have him as the psychiatrist who treated me when I needed to go to the psych. hospital one time but as well I knew that specific hospital provided treatment within standards that would be of help to me.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

There is no magic breakthrough center for bipolar disorder here in the US or else I probably would of heard about it by now from my family members who have the disorder.  Hell our health care is so good we have people die waiting in the emergency room and I even slept there for four hours once before being called to go in.

[Xila31]

I agree with you also. Just because something says USA on it doesn't mean it is the best. When my mom had cancer she was dying and my dad said to her doctor, "I will spend all of my money to take her anywhere in the world if they can treat her and keep her alive." Well the doctor looked at him and said, "Oh no, US doctors are the best, don't do that." Well, then my mom died. And not even a year later her cancer doctor is diagnosed with cancer. What was the first thing he did? He went to Europe to see a specialist. My dad was furious with him and still is and that was 18 years ago.

What happened to your friend happens to all of us. The doctor can see you for 15 minutes and then they're done with you. You wait for 2 hours for 15 minutes of face time, and that's if you're lucky. I don't know where bipolar people can go to get the best care, but it isn't here. Plus, many insurance companies do not cover the cost of mental health along with other diseases. So, you better be rich to get sick in this country.

[Malaksharif]

i absolutely agree with you ..that is why am too angry with my pdoc ,,did not go for 3 month now coz he almost fell asleep while i was talking coz i was not looking him in the eye while talking..........((silly me i did not do a thing and so angry with myself))..................ok he is too exhausted .he is going here and there attending conferences and he raised his fees by 25% and am not getting even the respect of a good listener


even more i cannot find another one in my city ,,,,i saw 6 worse ones than him in the past years and when ever i ask people say he is the best