Sunday, October 11, 2009

You are such a Pill!

So here's the scenario:
Mary's friend Jane's regular doctor is out of town, so she has to rely on the locum GP to fill her scripts. But because of a change in her anti-depressants and other life factor Jane's anxiety is through the roof, and she needs a little bit more than her regular dose of valium to help take the edge off. She has been on higher doses before in times of crisis and then had it tapered down, during more level times, under the careful eye of her very understanding and responsible GP. But GP is not there at present time. She turns to her friend Mary, who has large amounts of clonazepam (because she has no history of addiction and because it is co-prescribed as an anti-anxiety/anti-epileptic drug) and asks whether she can have a few of her pills just to get through because locum GP is unwilling to change medications on patient she is not familiar with (fair enough). Mary is not really sure about handing over medication to friend who has a history of addictions and suicidal gestures. But she knows the alternative is friend will just end up getting so carried off by anxiety she will end up back in hospital, which is definately to be avoided. So Mary gets on line and researches clonazepam vs valium, contraindications ect, and gives her friend 14 o.5mg tablets to supplement her valium for the week. SHE DOES NOT TAKE MONEY for the tablets. She is doing it as a favor, although she feels uneasy. Jane calls Mary back to tell her how much the tablets have helped, that she is definately NOT taking more than 1mg a day, and that she is going to talk to her doctor about changing over to Clonazepam. Mary feels really unsure about the whole thing... questions? comments?

2 comments:

  1. Seeing the two phrases "regular dose of valium" and then "responsible GP" in the very next sentence made me wince.

    I don't have any comment to make about Mary. She made a decision to trust her friend in a situation where there are some risks. That's how life works.

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  2. I see what you mean CBT, but by regular I still mean short term, just while she is getting through this acute crisis period.. As for 'Mary', she kind of feels like a drug dealer, even though that wasn't the intention.... decisions, trust, life is too messy sometimes.

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