I wrote recently about a patient whose 'delusional parisitosis' was ruining her life. She felt that bird mites had invaded her home, her car, and her siblings' homes, making her too anxious and distracted to work or carry on any semblance of normalcy. A psychiatrist started her on Abilify last month during a brief involuntary hospitalization orchestrated by her frantic family.
She came in today, 5 weeks into her Abilify treatment. She looked well--rested and tear-free. She declared that things were 'almost back to normal'; she was back in her home, no longer experienced abnormal skin sensations, and had returned to work. I didn't ask her if the mites were gone, nor did she volunteer anything along the lines of 'what do you suppose that crazy business was all about?' I didn't feel like she needed to acknowledge whether or not the mites were real or imagined; it was more than sufficient that they were no longer front and center in her mind and her life.
I hope her insurance pays for this medication. It's four-plus expensive, but what an amazing difference it's made for her.
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7 comments:
glad to hear it has actually helped someone!
thanks for the update
here is a web site with doctors and support groups for anyone who needs it... www.dailystrength.org
Wow.
I am impressed and gratified to read this success story.
And yes, payment (or non) by insurance can be a deal-maker or deal-breaker.
Wow, that's great news! I've seen it advertised and wondered if there was anything to it. Sounds as if it's a miracle drug!
Dear Anon, You're right, I'm not going to publish your comment, but I do appreciate your thoughts. I don't agree, however, with your rants against mental health care and the use of medications. This woman was virtually non-functional before starting Abilify, and now she is picking up her life, her work, her apartment, her pets, and moving on. That is huge...and wonderful. I think we only go around once on this earth, and if the living is better thanks to chemistry, well why not?
Glad it is helping her.... not my point.... one would now have to moniter her for heart/liver and a whole asundry of other problems... so it is another
'choice' between medications that harm, vs. getting 'better'...
that is no choice anyone should have to make, but we are all forced to everyday.... to that end goes my rant....
Have a great day....
Depression runs in my family. My two sisters are ruinously affected. If it weren't for anti-depressants, they would both be dead. I don't understand the chemical basis for their depression, and wouldn't it be grand if they didn't have to take huge doses of SSRIs, but they do and I'm grateful for these drugs.
So glad she got relief. Can't imagine what she went thru.
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