Concurrent medications past depression treatment

A

Anon

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7 years ago a close friend committed suicide I was put on Sertraline for depression and Trazodone to help sleep. I was only on the meds for approx 3 months and have been fine with no reoccurrences ever since. I am planning on an AME consult but am worried about having used two medications at the same time. Are there pathways forward for me, and if so what should they possibly look like. Thanks for any input.
 
Anon said:
7 years ago a close friend committed suicide I was put on Sertraline for depression and Trazodone to help sleep. I was only on the meds for approx 3 months and have been fine with no reoccurrences ever since. I am planning on an AME consult but am worried about having used two medications at the same time. Are there pathways forward for me, and if so what should they possibly look like. Thanks for any input.
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If this was your “one and only” in you life and you can get that doc to say so, and if there was no suicidality (doc has to say so!), you can do this.

The “proscription” against ever on dual therapy” applies to the ON SSRI path.,,,
 
I really have a problem with the docs that put a grieving person on two psychotropic meds for a situational condition that is going to resolve with a perfectly normal grieving process.
 
Morgan3820 said:
We are not to feel pain.
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Not true.

We ARE meant to feel pain as a means of survival. "Pain is your friend", I always say. It protects you from further harming yourself, and it has done that for thousands of years. Most of the pain that is treated pharmacologically today (including emotional pain) will go away on its own.
 
robin ardoin said:
I suspect Morgan was being facetious and actually agrees with you. ;)
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I hope so. But for some people that would not be a facetious statement at all. Many of those people are now hopelessly opioid addicted.
 
(Sometimes it's hard to be sure of sarcasm.) But my comment was directed more at the general situation of expecting some kind of medication for almost any kind of physical or emotional state that is undesirable. As a (retired) MD I can tell you that patient satisfaction is an important component of almost any successful medical practice, and there are lots of patients that simply feel slighted if something isn't done for their medical complaint, as if their doctor didn't believe them. It often takes a lot of valuable time to explain to a patient why you are NOT prescribing narcotics for their chronic back pain, for instance. For many docs, it's easier to do SOMETHING, even if it's of minimal actual help.
 
dbahn said:
Not true.

We ARE meant to feel pain as a means of survival. "Pain is your friend", I always say. It protects you from further harming yourself, and it has done that for thousands of years. Most of the pain that is treated pharmacologically today (including emotional pain) will go away on its own.
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Apologies my response was poorly worded. What I should’ve said was people don’t want to feel pain, even though, as you pointed out, it is a natural and needed mechanism. Society has wrongfully developed a concept that anything other than ‘ comfortably numb’ is not normal and needs to be fixed via medication.
 
I understand your view completely, @dbahn, as a practicing Oral/Maxillofacial surgeon. Many people expect to feel little to no pain post operatively. In many instances this can be accomplished by NSAIDS (if appropriate for the procedure and medical status) and acetaminophen. However, there are a high percentage of my patients that are convinced that a narcotic will be necessary. This has changed a bit for minor patients where the parents are making the decision and are more cautious about narcotic use and future implications. The above protocol works well in those cases. I try to tell patients that the pain they will experience cannot be completely eliminated (so don't have that expectation) but the goal is to reduce it to a reasonable level for a short period of time. I still get patients with drug seeking behavior but it has lessened in the past 10 years or so due to tightening of prescribing regulations and immediate provider access to scheduled drug prescriptions given to patients via the pharmacy boards database.
 
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