depression and a new treatment on NHS

[heeeed]

snip.

I really can't see that being helpful at all. They would want his full history and full psychiatric notes before they would vaguely consider interventions such as VNS. You cant just change your name and effectively reinvent a medical history as you see fit, his medical notes would have to get changed over to his new name.

Your best bet as mentioned before is to go through the appeals process to your PCT. It's often tempting to consider a new option such as VNS as a panacea, but the evidence of it for depression is not currently all that great as far as I'm aware, and as such you may find it extremely difficult to get it recommended on the NHS for you.

 

[platypus]

CBT is probably the biggest medical joke I've ever experienced. It's so false the very nature of it makes it pointless. Reciprocal questions and answers from two parties that don't want to tell or know the truth.

 

[Deadly Ferret]

I really can't see that being helpful at all. They would want his full history and full psychiatric notes before they would vaguely consider interventions such as VNS. You cant just change your name and effectively reinvent a medical history as you see fit, his medical notes would have to get changed over to his new name.

Ah, but if he were to say it's the 1st time he's registered with a G.P. as an adult, he can't remember the names of his childhood doctors, and there's nobody alive he can ask...

What it would do is give him a chance to start again, clean slated, within the (medical) system.

 

[heeeed]

well it would be completely futile to do that, not that I think it would work. If somehow they just decided to give him a clean start so to speak he would then go through normal channels such as starting antidepressants and changing these if they didnt work, primary care counselling etc before getting referral to secondary care services, who would go through all the things he had in the past, before potentially considering further ECT and still not offer him VNS.

I would be incredibly suspicious as to why this person would suddenly turn up to services in this way with no medical history before the age of 30 or so and I would suspect psychotic diagnosis as an explanation as to why he changed his name and apparantly forgot all his previous medical history. I would then check with departments and would almost certainly track things down and you would have done nothing to further your case for VNS. In short this is not sensible or feasible

 

[int]

Just out of interested, have you been on an SSRI and Pindolol mixed regime? Highly proven to work and it's a more instant effect than just having the SSRIs on their own.

 

[Jimbu]

Why was you at the Priory ? Was your condition brought on through Drug abuse ???

He said he went to the Priory to talk to the specialist in VNS nothing about drug abuse.

 

[Wiggins]

CBT is probably the biggest medical joke I've ever experienced........

I completely agree.

I was sent for CBT and found it completely useless. In fact it was that useless it made me more determined to beat my mental problem myself which I did.

 

[Deadly Ferret]

I would suspect psychotic diagnosis as an explanation as to why he changed his name and apparantly forgot all his previous medical history. I would then check with departments and would almost certainly track things down

'You' wouldn't know he'd changed his name because he wouldn't tell you! (Assuming you've put yourself in the role of G.P.) As for tracking it down, you've got a name and nowt else.

I changed my name not too long ago and subsequently registered with a G.P.. The circumstances were entirely different to the thread starter's, it actually was the 1st time I'd registered as an adult (I have virtually never been unwell in my entire life). I don't trust government departments, and always give them a minimum of information as personal policy. They got my name, some "I can't remember" replies, and a few made up answers. I got the couple of appointments I wanted, a prescription for penicillin, I'm on their records now, and I know I could call them today and get another appointment if I felt the need.

 

[philjohn]

Push as hard as you can and don't be fobbed off with CBT - I believe it's a way to try and treat mental health "on the cheap". It does help some people, but most people I know who've been through it said it didn't really help in the long term.

 

[Energize]

At least you actually got referred to a psychiatrist.

 

[heeeed]

. I got the couple of appointments I wanted, a prescription for penicillin, I'm on their records now, and I know I could call them today and get another appointment if I felt the need.

thats not quite the same as requesting a referral for an experimental treatment though is it a few more questions would be asked before that happens.

 

[Deadly Ferret]

thats not quite the same as requesting a referral for an experimental treatment though is it a few more questions would be asked before that happens.

True, and so long as he answers them appropriately they'd still be oblivious to his history...

He'd have to invest a bit of time in it, and that is why I said it might be suitable as a last resort.

 

[jamief]

Can someone help me or advise me as to how i can beat the system or get my voice heard so that i can get this new treatment. After all, a private specialist at the Priory Hospital has approved for me to have it. I have also tried alternative therapies and yoga and homoepathy and have worked hard to try and beat it but it is a very stubborn illness which runs in my family on my mum's side. THanks for listening.

Firstly - if you "beat" the system, then someone else loses out. Each PCT has a finite yearly budget (which may well be cut this year). A treatment which costs £20,000 would have to be near certain to work to be approved; AFAIK there is no clinical evidence to suggest the treatment mentioned will work.

If you are serious, you could write a letter to your PCT; however I'd be very surprised if such an expensive treatment was approved. The same money may well pay for some (literally) life saving drugs for a cancer patient, and I know which I'd rather were treated.

 

[heeeed]

True, and so long as he answers them appropriately they'd still be oblivious to his history...

He'd have to invest a bit of time in it, and that is why I said it might be suitable as a last resort.

You're missing the point. The only way he would ever even be considered for such a treatment is by volunteering his whole history! he can't just carefully make up a new history and have them go "oh well then in that case we'll refer" you clearly dont understand the way the system works, so you havent found a way to "beat the system"

 

[riamu]

i have been on SSRIs such as prozac and lustral and have been on Buspar and on the special categories of beta blockers such as celiprolol and pindolol but to no effect. i find myself now on a high dose of quetiapine 300mg per day, and phenelzine and pregabalin and atenolol. God help me, i would do anything to get VNS. I am not just pulling at straws here, my doctors don't believe me, but i feel much better and different with vagus nerve massage and with the yogic breathing which stimulates this nerve. I wish i could even be part of a VNS (vagus nerve stimulation) trial.

Everything was going my way to get VNS when the doctor at the Priory Hospital changed his mind and felt it was not a resitant depression entirely but psychosis so he put me on Seroquel (quetiapine). I am not psychotic, but many of the psychotic-like elements of my behavioural pattern stem from deep anxiety, such as feeling i am being spied on by my neighbours.

 

[Kitchster_uk]

Find a PCT that is doing it and ask to go there. I have a serious sleep disorder and the joker at James Cook hospital got bored after stripping my BUPA and point-blank refusing sleeping pills. So I've gone to Papworth, even though it's 220 miles away. They have already suggested 'shorter term' meds than I have tried, basically sleeping pills.

The comedy of some of these doctors and specialists - one told me that sleeping pills were addictive - REALLY???? Well, being as I would only have to take them FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, it isn't a big problem now is it?

 

[Deadly Ferret]

You're missing the point. The only way he would ever even be considered for such a treatment is by volunteering his whole history! he can't just carefully make up a new history and have them go "oh well then in that case we'll refer" you clearly dont understand the way the system works, so you havent found a way to "beat the system"

Actually you missed the point. He would be concealing the fact that he has a history. Clean slate. Let the new doctor make a new history for him. He would be a man with problems that had slipped through the net, until now...

 

[Energize]

Everything was going my way to get VNS when the doctor at the Priory Hospital changed his mind and felt it was not a resitant depression entirely but psychosis so he put me on Seroquel (quetiapine). I am not psychotic, but many of the psychotic-like elements of my behavioural pattern stem from deep anxiety, such as feeling i am being spied on by my neighbours.

Finding effective treatment on the NHS can be difficult.

 

[int]

Trying to get treatment for anxiety on the nhs is next to impossible. My doctor won't put me on clonazepam on a prn basis saying it's addictive despite it being by far the best anxiolytic drug, as if the crappy ssri's he wants me to take aren't dependance forming.... so I'm stuck with propanolol atm lol.

Any of the benzothiazipine class drugs are highly addictive. Yes they may help you with your anxiety but a downside to them is increased anxiety (due to addiction) when dialing down the dose, which is counter-productive!

 

[Energize]

Any of the benzothiazipine class drugs are highly addictive. Yes they may help you with your anxiety but a downside to them is increased anxiety (due to addiction) when dialing down the dose, which is counter-productive!

That's why it's taken on a prn basis, a couple of times a week, so that tolerance and dependence don't happen.