Overriding a Doctors medical opinion.

[alexb123]

I know this is a long shot but I thought I would try. I was seeing a Psychologist for many months I then had a one hour assessment with a Psychiatrist and from this meeting he wrote a report saying the original Psychologists views were wrong.

Whats of the greatest concern here is that the issue on which the Psychiatrist overwrote the Psychologist was never even spoken about.

I now wonder are there any guidelines or examples that may assist in me in understanding how a Doctor should approach overriding another professionals views?

Cheers

[flyingdoc]

This is a complex issue and you really should discuss this with the psychiatrist involved.

Remember medicine - specifically psychiatry is not an exact science - there are very few definites and problems and symptoms that correspond to a diagnosis can be present or absent in varying degrees.

The Psychiatrist is expressing his OPINION of the problems you are having, he may be 100% correct but it is still an opinion there is no blood test that can confirm his diagnosis - he is going from his knowledge and experience.

The same goes for the psychologist.

The fact that the Psychiatrist does not agree with the psychologist is nothing new. this happens all the time, as I said it is an inexact science. Potentially you could have 2 or 3 senior psychiatrists who each have their own views about a particular condition and each with plenty of supporting evidence.

The extra dimension is that Doctors (particularly older school ones) are sometimes of the opinion that anyone who does not have Dr (or Mr for surgeons) in front of their name is not worth listening to.

More and more in medicine we are seeing practitioners who specialise in a particular field and but the Old school Medical profession still views these with more than a little suspicion and derision.

I dont know if your Psychiatrist is one of these but everyone thinks his own opinion is correct.

I would try discussing the issues that the psychologist had based his opinion on with the psychiatrist and ask him why he doesnt agree.