Psychologist vs Psychiatrist/Neurologist for diagnosis.

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DVCal
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27 Feb 2013, 2:14 am

Which do you think is better for getting a diagnosis? I also notice a massive cost difference, were psychologist usually charges around 100 to 200 an hour, the medical doctors charge 500 to 2000 an hour. Wonder what makes them worth the extra cost.



one-A-N
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27 Feb 2013, 3:40 am

I took myself to a psychologist - but one who specialises in ASD and studied under an international expert.

I was happy with that arrangement - I felt confident about the quality of the Dx.

I have an ancient psych degree, so maybe I am biased towards psychologists.



tall-p
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27 Feb 2013, 4:25 am

DVCal wrote:
Wonder what makes them worth the extra cost.

Psychiatrists are MDs, and went to medical school. And they can, and will 99 times out of 100, prescribe drugs to anyone who comes in hurting.


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whirlingmind
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27 Feb 2013, 5:55 am

My experience with psychiatrists was appalling. They failed to diagnose me with anything despite labelling more than enough that they could have at least diagnosed me with PDD-NOS. It was a psychologist who diagnosed me and did a way more thorough assessment than the psychiatrists did.


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DVCal
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27 Feb 2013, 4:38 pm

tall-p wrote:
DVCal wrote:
Wonder what makes them worth the extra cost.

Psychiatrists are MDs, and went to medical school. And they can, and will 99 times out of 100, prescribe drugs to anyone who comes in hurting.


You think one of the medical doctors who can diagnosis aspergers, will even try to give drugs to people with aspergera.

One a side note I saw a developmental neurologist once, he saw mainly kids and young adults with asd and adhd, I swear his office was full of different advertisements for drugs parents could give their kids.



tall-p
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27 Feb 2013, 5:16 pm

DVCal wrote:
tall-p wrote:
DVCal wrote:
Wonder what makes them worth the extra cost.

Psychiatrists are MDs, and went to medical school. And they can, and will 99 times out of 100, prescribe drugs to anyone who comes in hurting.


You think one of the medical doctors who can diagnosis aspergers, will even try to give drugs to people with aspergera.

One a side note I saw a developmental neurologist once, he saw mainly kids and young adults with asd and adhd, I swear his office was full of different advertisements for drugs parents could give their kids.

When someone shows up at a doctor's office wanting a diagnosis, the doctor will ask you, "How are you feeling?" That is the most important part. If you go in there saying I feel like an Aspie, the doctor will say why? If you say you want to be screened for Aspergers then they might ask you "Why?" But if they do an assessment, and it comes out that you are an Aspie in his/her mind, they will still want to know how you feel, and what do you want now?


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Dots
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27 Feb 2013, 6:10 pm

I went to a psychiatrist and he diagnosed me with "moderate to severe" Aspergers and even put in his final report that there were no drug treatments for Aspergers and as such recommended group therapy (though he added that he didn't think I'd be successful in group therapy due to difficulty being in a group as well as the fact that I was transgender???)

But no, he was a good psychiatrist. I've seen some horrible ones.


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