Sleeping patterns

[Robert Turner]

My wife had an incident a few years ago where she developed a tremendous headache and half an hour later was nearly unconcious. We rushed her in to the ER where they did a CT scan which was clear.

Fortunately she recovered and was almost back to normal a few hours after being admtted. She spent the night and in the morning a specialist asked her a few questions. He then prescribed her one of the strongest anti depressants available. When iI questioned him he said her sleeping patters, struggling to fall asleep at night and waking very early we're strng indicators of serious depression.

We threw out the tablets and she has been fine. Does anyone else have a similar experience.

 

[janemariesayed]

Well, I was going to say no, but a few years ago I remember now, while I was living in Egypt I had severe pains in my abdomen. My husband rushed me to the hospital and they told me that they wanted to remove my spleen.

You have never seen anyone recover so quick from anything. I ran out of that hospital leaving my poor husband and the doctor quite bemused!

I have no idea what caused the pain. It may have been my depression or anxiety. Whatever it was though, wasn't important and probably not physical as it has never happened again.

 

[Robert Turner]

Hi @janemariesayed

I don't think I phrased my question properly. What I really wanted to know was wether it is common practise for doctors to prescribe heavy meds for depression based on two or three questions relating to the patients sleeping habits.

I was shocked to the extent that I considered lodging a complaint with the medical council. Surely this is a case of reckless diagnosis from person who is not medically trained to diagnose depression?

 

[janemariesayed]

Most people who suffer from depression aren't able to sleep well. They can keep waking up throughout the night and then spend a lot of the day in bed. So I think that is why doctors ask about sleeping patterns to establish the level of depression. They must surely have taken in other symptoms to account.

My doctor didn't want to just fob me off with pills, thankfully. He thought that therapy would be the best way forward. I do have pills now though to help me through but I wasn't given them flippantly.

I think some doctors can't be bothered with their job. They can just fob a patient off with pills to get rid of them. Your wife's doctor should certainly have asked more questions but also referred her to a therapist for an assessment before giving pills.

I consider a GP as a middle man. He knows a bit of everything and refers the patient to the right department for treatment. Perhaps you could get a second opinion from a different doctor?

 

[Robert Turner]

This was four years ago and the doctor was actually a specialist. He said my wife's epoisode was typical of a nervous colapse.
We since discovered that she had been swimming in the sea during very heavy red tides and the spores that become airborne in the water can cause this. Two other people had similar attacks over this period.

So much for a complete and thorough diagnosis. Our GP was actually shocked when she saw what he had prescribed for my wife. Always exhuast all the other options before going down the medication route.