Posted by bleauberry on December 26, 2009, at 20:04:15
In reply to Re: too scared to drop meds-- what would you change? » inanimate peanut, posted by SLS on December 26, 2009, at 18:13:08
> > It's very easy for outsiders to say "oh, you are taking too much" but only you know your body.
>
> I agree with this sentiment. There is no arbitrary upper limit to the number of drugs that one may need to take.
>
>If 5 psychiatric meds have a patient close to remission, then 5 is not too much.
If 5 psych meds have the patient closer to "quite ill", then 5 is too much.
Well, actually not so much that they are too many, but that they are not the right ones to be many, if that makes any sense.
If you're gonna have a lot of meds, they better be performing. That's all.
With systematic strategies, such as employed by STAR*D or by SLS, underperformers are traded for newcomers, rather than adding more and more and more with no end in sight.
I think the reason some posters thought there were too many meds is based on the predicament that the patient is not doing well on them. It would be a totally different story if the patient was doing very well and merely seeking to do some fine-tuning.
poster:bleauberry
thread:930924
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091217/msgs/931038.html