Ethics, Humility, and Psychotropic Medications
THOMAS A RODGERS, M.D.*
Affiliation : * Barlett Regional Hospital, Juneau, Alaska.
A 37 year old divorced, unemployed, mother of four just left my office. I have been treating her for the past three years. Substance abuse, cocaine and marijuana, plus ever present intrusive thoughts and images of threatening "ghosts", are her current primary problems. But there also is an enormous childhood history of physical and sexual abuse, of familial manic-depression (bipolar) illness, alcoho- lism, dissociation, and suicide. She tells me she is "not really depressed" but is worried, anxious, and fears becoming more withdrawn and socially iso- lated. Today she asked me to up her dose of tluo- xitine (Prozac) from 20 to 60 mg per day because "it makes me feel more like a real person ... with it I feel good and can cope with thing".
Keywords : Ethics, Hippocratic Oath, Psychiatrist
