We work with a wide range of psychiatric disorders and proper diagnosing is the hallmark or goal of the initial visit. This will then allow development of a treatment plan so that you are one step closer to feeling better.
Depression
- Decide whether the condition is primary or secondary to circumstances.
- Exclude drug or physical causes or a mood control disorder.
- A plan for combined medication and therapy is designed.
Bi-polar Treatment
- This is a mood control disorder and has accelerated or depressed states which do poorly on anti-depressants alone. Usually two or more drugs are needed to prevent cycling.
- Familial genetics are common often with alcoholism. Psychotherapy and counseling are now viewed as being essential for support and insight.
Problem Diagnosis
- This is often a dual diagnosis (more than one condition) frequently involving substance abuse, personality and social problems, and erratic or impulsive behavior. Bi-polar disorders are also frequently found. Several treatments need to be combined with expert psychotherapy after medical evaluation.
Chronic Psychiatric Illness
- Often a recurrent psychotic illness, either of schizophrenic (personality disintegration) or Bipolar Disorder (loss of mood control) with long backgrounds of various treatments now have a selection of new and effective medications with better results if started early and have social supports. Treatments need to be continuous, as physical brain damage has been now found in reduced brain volumes in certain critical areas without treatment.
Anxiety Problems
- These are often chronic disorders, and like chronic depression (untreated) are often related to aggravation of traumatic effects on the brain particularly when associated with pain and sleep disorders. These are stress related conditions as seen in post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive, social and phobic states. Panic states are often seen in emergency rooms without obvious physical causes and are so overwhelming that patients self refer themselves to psychiatrists. Fortunately these are treatable conditions even if not cured.
Attention Deficit Disorders
- This state occurs frequently in children and adults who suffer through developmental reading problems and amazingly achieve ambitious goals very slowly but persistently.
- The careful and safe use of stimulants and newer drugs have revolutionized the treatment in these cases (without the exaggerated damage claimed by others).
Addictive Disorders
- Included here are smoking (nicotine) dependence (most difficult) with inevitable relapses, as well as alcoholism(3-5 drinks/or equivalent are heavy), substance and prescription abuse, and gambling. Addiction is persistent, and causes damage with loss of control and an inability to stop (knowing this and denying it)
- Personality assessment to correct loss of judgment becomes a long process of motivated effort as we have good medication aids apart from dedicated therapy.
Eating Disorders
- Apart from Obesity in children and adults, Bulimia (overeating and purging) has a 35% incidence being three times commoner than Anorexia Nervosa. These are treated as early as possible with medications and intensive long-term care as lethal complications can occur. There is no recognition of body image disturbance usually.