Who do I talk to about medication side effects?

If you are concerned that a side effect is interfering with your daily life, affecting your health, or leading you to stop taking your medicine, be sure to speak with your doctor or pharmacist.

Why would a psychiatrist order a blood test?

Diving right in, possible reasons a psychiatrist may order a blood test include: To determine if treatments will be safe and screening for certain conditions that may necessitate prescribing certain medications over others (e.g., blood, heart, thyroid, and kidney conditions).

How do you tell your psychiatrist you want to stop taking medication?

If you want to stop taking the medication, you can ask your doctor to give you information on how to stop the medications safely. Your psychiatrist may disagree with discontinuing the medication or may suggest alternative medications with you.

Can blood test show mental illness?

A simple blood test can pinpoint the diagnosis and help your doctor prescribe the best treatment. But symptoms of mental illness are far more complex to diagnose and treat so researchers are working to develop clinical tests diagnose depression and determine the best treatment.

Are your psychiatric drugs interfering with your life?

If you’re struggling with unwanted side effects, here’s how to better manage them. If your side effects are interfering with your life, your very first call should be to your doctor. Psychiatric drugs change brain chemistry, so it’s not safe to suddenly stop taking them on your own—or worse still, repeatedly stop and restart.

Is it safe to stop taking psychiatric drugs?

Psychiatric drugs change brain chemistry, so it’s not safe to suddenly stop taking them on your own—or worse still, repeatedly stop and restart. Your doctor can give you the most accurate information about what to expect from side effects; in some cases, common early side effects quickly go away, for instance.

Do doctors know all the side effects of drugs?

Amy Thompson, a clinical pharmacist and an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy, said doctors have plenty of knowledge about drugs, but there are so many available they don’t know the possible side effects of all of them.

Is the doctor who prescribes sedatives a bad doctor?

“The doctor who gave me that, he’s not a bad doctor,” Awbrey said of the physician who prescribed the sedative. “He’s a nice man,” she said, but added that drug companies may not warn doctors sufficiently about side effects.