Posted by Leighwit on May 23, 2002, at 10:54:30
In reply to Lamictal- No Weight gain, posted by Peter S. on May 22, 2002, at 21:08:05
> I'm on 300mg of Lamictal and no weight gain.
>
> Peter S.Thanks Peter. I have decided to go ahead and start Lamictal on Monday. I'm quite nervous about it, but the comments here have been a very big help in the decision to fill the script. Hearing from people with real experience using it for depression/affective disorders is particularly helpful since that's not the basis of it's FDA approval.
There are lots of reasons patients can be apprehensive about starting new AD drugs, particularly from a drug category they haven't used before. I think that one of those reasons is the overscheduled nature of physician practices these days. My own Pdoc can barely take a full breath in between appointments. And patients feel it. There's a sense of pressing urgency to spit out what you've come to say and get the heck out so that one of the next six pour souls in the waiting room can have their chance.
I said that to my Pdoc in my last visit. She took a deep breath, changed her body language and tried to listen more calmly and intently. I was moved by her willingness to listen and respond to my complaint, but it didn't change the outcome. The waiting room was still spilling over and it would be the same way during the next visit.
This board, while not a substitute for better physician care helps us in a variety of ways. For me, it's always helped during ramp-up phases of trying different drugs. I remember when I first took Reboxetine, that I was more comfortable in the knowledge that there were people "here" on Psychobabble (living in the UK actually) who could and would share their own experience. And they did. And sometimes in a matter of minutes!
Whatever our reasons for coming and going most of us try to help each other along the way of searching for something on Psychobabble to help ourselves.
It's not just a support group or some unmoderated chat room on the web.
I can somewhat understand the furrowed brow one gets if one mentions this site (generically or specifically) to Pdocs but its increasingly apparent that ignorance plays a chief role in their disdain. Skepticism I can understand. But to summarily dismiss the role the Web (and certainly this board) plays in patient attitudes, choices, and uses of AD medications is not only ignorant, it's inane.
Laurie
poster:Leighwit
thread:106786
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020517/msgs/107406.html