One way to choose a doctor is rely on word of mouth. Although this approach is often used, and is often reliable, you may be choosing a doctor on the bssis of personality rather than expertise.
There are certain basics that any doctor you are considering should have. Your doctor should have accessible credentials, including evidence (such as diplomas, certificates, on-line physician registries) of graduation from an accredited medical school and residency training program. This is the bare minimum! The best doctors also have advanced training in their chosen field, are members of subspecialty societies, and often participate in medical education activities, write, and they may be involved in clinical research as well.
Your choice of a psychopharmacologist or psychiatrist is a matter of critical importance. This is the doctor who will be evaluating your state of mind, your mood, your ambitions, and your overall mental and even spiritual needs.
Some doctors in these fields—sometimes because of excellent reputation, and/or advanced skills—end up carrying very large practices. You may find yourself in a waiting room with other patients who are also waiting to be seen. Your doctor should be able to spend enough quality time with you during your visit that you feel all your important issues and medication decisions have been aired. What you don’t want is an ‘assembly’ line type of arrangement where all you get is 5 minutes of the doctor’s time and a prescription.
Then there is the other extreme, doctors who have a personal interest in ‘psychoanalysis.’ These physicians may have spent additional years training in this specialty, learning how to get their patients to talk for months and years about issues which the doctor then ‘interprets’ in the hope that his observations will make for significant behavioral changes in his patient. Some patients come to ‘mind doctors’ expecting this kind of interpersonal transaction and are actually disappointed when the doctor seems more interested in the here and now and in offering medication.
Part of your evaluation of the prospective doctor should include a frank discussion of the doctor’s medical philosophy. Will psychotherapy (talking therapy) be a part of each session? Are there any medications the doctor does not or will not prescribe? You are also entitled to ask about the doctor’s background and about his level of experience with the kind of issues you are bringing into the office.
All financial arrangements, such as fees, charges for missed visits, and insurance reimbursement should be discussed up front. When you decide to work with a doctor you are entering into what is essentially a business (and personal) relationship where all the parameters should be clear to both you and the physician.
Your doctor’s questions should be thorough and comprehensive. If you are seeking relief from depression, addiction, or trouble concentrating, your doctor would be remiss if he or she did not ask about drinking and drug use. The doctor also needs to find out if you have any medical history, if you have ever been hospitalized, and if you are taking medication currently.
Find out how to reach the doctor in the event of side effects or other urgent situations.
Someone once invested a great deal of time studying and comparing different types of psychotherapy. The researcher diligently catalogued over one hundred types of psychotherapy, in an effort to see which methods were more effective than others. The results were fascinating: each of the 103 psychotherapies was equally effective. However, the key ingredient for any therapy was the presence of a patient and caring healer. These qualities are difficult to measure, of course, but your gut reaction to the doctor counts for a lot.
After all, you are not seeking a technician who will be performing surgery on a remote body part. You are looking for a doctor who listens, cares, knows how best to help you.
