A Message for Non-Health Professionals
Richard J. Metzner, M.D.
Clinical Professor
Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA
Founder, DepressionConsultant.com
Thank you for visiting this website. Perhaps you are here because you or someone you know has problems with depression or has been prescribed medication to treat depression. Maybe you are just interested in seeing what is available here. In any case, feel free to explore.
I created this website and the Clinaptica Depression Consultant app because I know that there is a better way to treat depression than many people are receiving. Thousands of patients I've treated and fellow professionals with whom I've spoken would agree. People all over the world are now beginning to use the individualized methods I talk about on this website. That's good news, because the usual one-size-fits-all cookbook approach doesn't work most of the time and has made the word "antidepressant" a joke in too many people's minds.
Depression is anything but a joke. I know because I’ve battled it myself. It runs in my family, and I've seen what it can do up close and personal. That's part of why I decided to devote my professional life to finding a better way to treat it. My personal experiences with treatment in the beginning were not great, so I am very sympathetic to anyone who questions the value of therapy or medications. What I've learned, however, is that those treatments can be very valuable when professionals pay careful attention to what patients need.
Here's a good rule to follow:
DON'T ACCEPT TREATMENT FROM ANYONE WHO TREATS YOU THE SAME WAY AS EVERY OTHER PATIENT.
Just ask the professional this: "How are you going to decide what I need?
If the answer is something like "Let's figure out together what your particular situation calls for," you are much more likely to be treated effectively.
This website is devoted to talking to both non-professionals and professionals about individualizing treatment, but not always in the same places. We have, for example, extensive information about antidepressants, but we've divided it into separate sections for professionals and non-professionals, just because the facts needed by prescribers are quite different and communicated in a different language than the facts needed by people like you. My own articles can be a bit "doctorly" at times, but I suspect that, if you took the trouble to read this far, you are the kind of educated consumer I'm hoping to reach.
Remember, to take advantage of all the features on the site, please register and log in. It costs nothing and your privacy and confidentiality will be totally respected. By registering you will help us individualize our content on the website in the same way that we are trying to individualize the treatment of depression.
Welcome to DepressionConsultant.com.
Copyright 2012, Scaled Psychiatric Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.