I am in private practice in psychiatry in Pasadena, CA. My services include consultations/second opinions, psychotherapy, medication management and forensic services. I have a broad based general, adult practice and my subspecialty interests include anxiety/panic disorders, and the side effects/withdrawal effects of antidepressants and benzodiazepines.
The most common reason patients present to my office is anxiety. I frequently see people in consultation who are interested in stopping psychiatric medications or people who are having problems since stopping medications. The decision to start taking a psychiatric medication is one that needs to be made carefully as all of the drugs have side effects and the potential for dependency.
Similarly, the decision to stop taking a medication needs to be made carefully, as tapering schedules and withdrawal syndromes from psychiatric medications have been inadequately studied. All too often medications are prescribed after brief visits with little warning to the patient about potential adverse effects. Because psychiatrists may have little or no actual experience with psychotherapy, many are unable to make a determination whether a patient might do better with therapy alone.
Frequently psychiatrists assume that the patient is expecting a drug treatment. Patients are often unaware that the psychiatrist has made no consideration about whether a condition would do best without any drug. With over 30 years experience as a psychiatrist and an extensive background in the psychotherapies, I am well suited to help a distressed individual to regain their emotional well being. I have treated thousands of patients with panic disorder. I have also published original research relating panic disorder to abnormalities of bile flow that result in reflux-based sinusitis and heartburn. I have used this and other research to formulate a more precise conceptualization of panic disorder and practical treatment approaches. Above all, my approach to patients involves good common sense, attentive listening and mutual respect.
I embrace the Hippocratic Oath, and its saying, “first do no harm.”
