New Doctor Questions

1. If I need to call you, how long do you usually take to respond?  Do you have another doctor on-call if you’re on vacation?
2. If I ask you questions, will you give me detailed information about why you think I need a certain treatment? I need to know the rationale behind your suggestions.
3. What drugs do you frequently prescribe to your patients? Have you had success with these drugs?
4. How much experience have you had with atypicals?
5. Will you prescribe drugs “off-label” if you think it will benefit me?
6. Will you discuss any side effects of the medication you’re treating me with, and do you have a plan in case I develop a side effect?
7. Is your focus on mental illness treatment and recovery, or do you have a general clientele? Are you willing to be creative in custom-tailoring solutions to my treatment needs?
8. If my parents or a third-party person needed to speak on my behalf or talk to you about my treatment, how would you handle that?
9. What would a typical session with you be like?
10. Do you have an area of expertise with certain illnesses?
11. Where did you get your degree? Are you Board Certified?  How long have you been in practice?
12. What do you feel challenges and inspires you as a doctor? [This could tell you a lot about their personal work ethic.]
13. What hospitals do you have admitting privileges with?
14. Are you willing to coordinate my treatment with my primary care doctor or get the results of blood work or tests from this doctor to integrate my whole health care outlook?
15. Do you have evening or morning or weekend hours?
16. Do you test for tardive dyskinesia? Have you ever had a patient who developed this, and what has been your experience with treating TD?
17. Do you take my insurance? Will you bill my insurance company or do you expect me to pay up front and then submit my own claim form for reimbursement?
18. Do you believe someone can recover from a mental illness? [This question is the gold standard. If at all you get the idea that this doctor doesn’t believe recovery is possible it will benefit you to keep looking until you find a professional who is interested in seeing his or her patients succeed in life.]

Feel free to ask any other questions that come to you that aren’t listed above and when you begin treatment also develop your own questions in addition to the ones listed below.