4 Easy Ways to Save Money on Medication. Get Cheap Prescription Drugs!

The high cost of medications can be prohibitive for patients trying to fill them. Frequently, people are forced to go on and off their medication depending on when they can afford to pay for them. Cheap medications and cheap prescription drugs are possible! Are you interested in hearing about how to save money on prescriptions? I will tell you about 4 great ways.

Do you pay cash for medication?
Are you uninsured or have a high deductible plan?
Do you know the cost of medication varies greatly among different pharmacies?
If you have insurance your co-pay may be more expensive than the cost of paying out of pocket for the medication!

Why does the cost of medications vary between pharmacies?

Wow is this complicated! There are so many different factors and players involved. Due to lack of transparency, it’s hard to know who to blame. Wikipedia has a good general overview of different contributors to medication pricing. read more

Seasonal Affective Disorder? Light therapy can help!

Seasonal Affective Disorder typically occurs in the fall and winter with a remission in spring and summer. People with Seasonal Affective Disorder have symptoms of depression that follow a seasonal pattern. The depression can be significantly impairing even if it doesn’t last all year long. Light therapy can be very helpful. There are various options for different lights for Seasonal Affective Disorder treatment.

About 5% of the US population experiences Seasonal Affective Disorder with symptoms that last approximately 40% of the year. It is more common in females than males (4:1) and often happens in women of childbearing age. read more

Top 10 books about ADHD

I’m frequently asked about what books I recommended on different mental health topics so I decided to compile a list of these books on my website. In this post, I will highlight my recommendations for the best ADHD books. There are many great ADHD books written but these are some of my favorites. These books about ADHD will benefit parents trying to help their children understand the diagnosis, couples struggling in their relationship because of the effects of ADHD, and adults with ADHD wanting to learn about executive dysfunction and be more aware of the ways ADHD has affected their lives. read more

Benzodiazepines: Do They Treat Anxiety?

Are Benzodiazepines a Treatment for Anxiety? A quick fix or a long-term problem? They are frequently used but there are potential side effects of benzodiazepines and, even worse, risk of dangerous benzodiazepine withdrawal. Learn more about when it may be reasonable to use a benzodiazepine for anxiety treatment and what the risks are.

What benzodiazepines are used for anxiety treatment?

There are several different medications in the benzodiazepine family of medicine. Some common ones are Xanax/alprazolam, Klonopin/clonazepam, Ativan/lorazepam, and Valium/diazepam. Any of one of these can be used as a treatment for anxiety. read more

ADHD? Calling Out Stigma: Doctor to Doctor

Recently I had an interaction online with a physician regarding his thoughts on ADHD treatment. (Let’s call him Dr. Stigma). This post is not about doctor bashing but more to point out the prevalence of stigma against those with a psychiatric diagnosis EVEN FROM WITHIN THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY. Stigma, unfortunately, is so indoctrinated into our culture sometimes people don’t recognize the pure ugliness of their words.

Dr. Stigma’s comments:

“Many patients use Ritalin and other stimulants to read more

8 Great Options to Treat Insomnia (Without Medication)

Do your worries keep you awake at night? Restorative sleep is so important for our health yet is often sabotaged by anxiety. If you are a “sleep worrier” you may benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (abbreviated CBTi). CBT for insomnia is a targeted insomnia treatment that can have long-term benefit and doesn’t require taking medication.

Some signs you may benefit from CBT for Insomnia:

When you have trouble falling asleep or wake in the middle of the night:

Do you check the clock to see how many hours you have left until morning?
Are you someone that calculates the hours you need to function well the next day?
Do you start to worry about how awful you will feel the next day, how you will not have the energy to take care of what you need to do, or will most certainly fail your exam?

If your worries help you fall back to sleep then stop reading this and keep worrying! If like the rest of us, worries actually keep you awake consider trying cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. read more

Naloxone: The antidote for opiate overdose

We can do more to stop the surge of deaths from opiate overdose. Naloxone is an opiate overdose treatment. It is an antidote that can be used to reverse an opiate overdose (like a heroin overdose). Did you know that over 33,000 people in the United States died from opiate overdoses in 2015? In Connecticut alone there were 723 opiate overdoses in 2015, 444 of them were fatal. According to the CDC, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death of Americans under 50 years old.

Ambulances and hospitals have been treating overdoses with Naloxone for decades. Given the current opiate epidemic, steps have been taken to make Naloxone more accessible to the general public. Naloxone can save the life of a person who is overdosing on an opiate.

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Can’t sleep? Back to basics!

Is your sleep suffering? Can’t sleep at all? Let’s talk about sleep problems, some basic information about sleep and sleep hygiene, and how to sleep better. We often don’t make the connection between poor sleep and habits we have that interfere with it. Quality sleep is essential to feeling well. We feel lousy when we have a lack of sleep! Chronic lack of sleep can have medical consequences and make it hard to recover from an illness like depression.

How to Sleep Better: Sleep Hygiene

You may be able to improve sleep by practicing better sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is really about getting back to basics: minimizing disruptions while sleeping, maximizing comfort, and identifying things interfering with sleep while adding in things to improve sleep. Here is a link to a great review of sleep hygiene that will help you figure out how to improve your sleep problems. read more

Alcohol Dependence and Withdrawal: Are You at Risk?

Are you at risk for alcohol withdrawal?

First and foremost if you think you need help to stop drinking alcohol let your doctor know! Withdrawal can be deadly and you want to make sure to detox correctly. Your physician can help you determine your risks and recommend whether inpatient or outpatient treatment is necessary. An individualized treatment plan combined with the right support can increase your chance to successfully and safely stop drinking. The information in this post is not to be used in place of your doctor’s opinion and advice so go get yourself help!

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Alcohol Use Disorder: Do you have a drinking problem?

Do I have a drinking problem? It is not uncommon for people who drink alcohol to wonder if their drinking is normal or problematic (or somewhere in between). Some people have alcohol addiction that runs in their families so they know they are at risk for addiction. They want to monitor their drinking closely to make sure they don’t have a drinking problem. Others are confronted by loved ones who think they may have alcohol abuse and the person isn’t sure they agree. Do you want to see if you meet criteria for the diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder? Read here to find out. read more