the Price of a Psychiatrist

One hour of talk-style therapy with an MD psychiatrist. This was at a small office shared by a two doctor practice. My service was basically to have questions asked about medications, for maintenance and adjustment, as well as general questions about my life in the talk therapy component of the appointment. In an ongoing treatment situation, it's not uncommon for this segment to become shorter, this shortening the entire appointment. You'll note that most doctors still charge for the entire hour.

In the case of my psychiatrist, I really didn't like him. I went with him for a little over a year, but over time, I realized he just wasn't listening to my concerns as a patient. Usually, I'd meet him every month or two, and sometimes I'd come to him with concerns or questions from a regular therapist I use. This other therapist is not a doctor, and I noticed that he repeatedly would ignore suggestions and questions from him. I certainly don't think the 185 dollar per hour charge was justified for these services! Admittedly, I only had a small copay to worry about, but it really blows my mind that there is such variability in quality of service that patients have to worry about when selecting a good physician.

Personally, I decided to use a regular $90 an hour therapist for therapy, and a regular MD for my medications. If you have very serious mental health needs, you are basically stuck with a psychiatrist, I'm sorry to say, and I don't really have any good tips there.

My only real tip is to use another type of doctor if you can. This is especially true if you don't have medical insurance, but even if you do I'd consider going to your regular physician. At this point, I've had 3 regular doctors helping me with antidepressant medications, and three psychiatrists. Two of the regular MDs did a good job, and one of the psychiatrists was vaguely OK. The other two really kind of stunk! For some reason, many psychiatrists seem to be very arrogant, almost having god-complexes themselves! The real trick is to find a doctor who will listen to you, and do a responsible job prescribing medications. As long as they do a good job, it doesn't really matter what their specialization is.