On 2005-10-28 15:44:00, Anonymous wrote:
"for sleep"
Trazadone is actually an anti-depressant. But it also helps with sleep, and is used a lot because it's non-addictive unlike a lot of sleep aids out there. I used to take it years ago. It knocks you on your ass, and I was an adult. I can't imagine what it must do to a teenage brain. That kid must have been a zombie.
So, Dr. Ulrich would just start kids out on several meds at once? That's unusual. Normally, a doctor will start someone out on one med, and if they are still having problems after the med becomes effective and is in their system regularly, (which could take weeks or months) they will alter the dose. Then, if that doesn't help, they would consider either changing the med, or if the med is helping but not as much as it could be, they would introduce an additional, supplemental medication. This is why it can often take years for psych meds to be adjusted properly. And the scenario I am talking about here is for adults. With teenagers, I would think that one would have to tread even lighter and be even more careful, because the teenage brain is very different physiologically from the adult one.
And if someone is diagnosed as bipolar, they shouldn't be on any antidepressants at all. They should only be on mood stabilizers. Antidepressants can actually exacerbate the instability. They can work in the short term, but they will tend to lose their effecacy after about a year or so, and the person will "crash" (oftentimes becoming even more depressed). If that kid was diagnosed as bipolar, he shouldn't have been on zoloft or trazadone at all.
More importantly, I just don't think that RMA was a conducive environment to have any sort of effective psychiatric practices take place. The predominant ideology there is almost in conflict with the idea of psychiatric medicine, so I was surprised when I heard that they began medical treatment there. (Like there was anyone within the CEDU system who was knowledgable enough to be able to choose competent psychiatric staff and know how to monitor them effectively to begin with, you know?) I mean, who did Dr. Ulrich report to? Who was his superior who made sure he was practicing safe medicine? It obviously wasn't another psychiatrist, because I was told he was the only one there. So, what, another CEDU staff was? Like they would know? You can't just have a school and then "tack-on" psychiatric treatment, almost as an afterthought, to attract a wider audience of customers. In my opinion, a school has to be built from the ground up with a solid understanding of psychiatric principles and it has to be a part of their foundation, with a large psychiatric staff on hand, so that there is more than one doctor's opinion available. The way RMA did it was almost in a slapdash sort of way.
