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Does anyone else’s medical records look suspicious? Fictional?

 

This is all looking fictional to me at this point. I haven’t gotten a hold of all of mine. I threw some away recently... I don’t know what’s right, what to think, nothing (about all of it.)

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Yes... nowhere in my medical records (Doctors, Hospital, Psychologist) does it say anything about

benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome/symptoms..... just "DEPRESSION".

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My records were altered/suppressed in a number of ways.

 

1) The ones when I first was put on SSRIs were destroyed. There is only a certain amount of years that a doctor is required to keep them. Some will keep them longer. I imagine now that things are digitized they may stick around longer. So this may not be a problem for people anymore.

 

2) I'm skipping all the free clinics because if they keep records who knows if the clinics even exist or kept records to begin with. Plus, they were just refills.

 

3) I was first put on benzos at a University Health Center. I was there for about a year. On my very last visit (after a year? or more?) the doctor noted something like "patient informed of possible side effects and risks of....". I had two psy doctors at that center during my time. The first retired. I think the second realized when they looked over my record, since I was graduating, that there was no record of me ever having been warned (I was actually lied to about their safety but that's another story) and so to protect the former doctor and perhaps the center itself, wrote on this last day that I had been given informed consent. You cannot be given informed consent a year+ into taking a medication. What bothers me the most about this part is that this doctor made sure to make that note, but did not make sure to tell me of those risks. It was a classic CYA move. I believe it might be harder to go back and change records now that they are digitized and so there might be a trail. In the past, they just would have gone back to the first visit and penciled this information in.

 

3.5) It's been three months and I am still waiting on the documents from the person who truly got me going on Klonopin daily and not "as needed." The clerk has called me; I've called her. She can't seem to get permission or someone to sign off on releasing them. So I cannot speak to what is valid or invalid in them.

 

4) The doctor who upped my dose and kept me on them for three more years also never warned me of any possible risks. When I requested my records they only sent me records for three visits. I was there for three years. I had to go back and demand all of them. This could have been an honest mistake. These records make no mention of any of my symptoms of extreme distress during my two cold turkeys. It's like they never happened. He also consistently wrote down the wrong doses, and even the wrong drugs. He referred to Klonopin as an SSRI.

 

5) The doctor who (rapid) tapered me refuses to release her notes. To me or to a doctor. Just refuses. Point blank.

 

6) The two psychologists I was working with during this same time initially refused to hand over their records (this is a little different because I was in a study). What they did was write a narrative report. About half of it was devoted to my issues; the other half was devoted to downplaying my symptoms as a result of rapid tapering benzos and making it seem as though I was making choices, when there was constant coersion. Also, because my previous doctor was so horrible and wouldn't release the records, a physician in the study became my prescriber. Their group account is filled with inaccuracies. For example: they claim that one of my issues is that my mother and father were alcoholics, drug addicts, and mentally ill. My parents were not alcoholics (my father didn't drink, I've never seen my mother drunk), they were not drug addicts, and though my father had mental health issues, the characterization was libelous. These are doctors I, at the time, had great respect for, and they wrote this, and sent it to me. It was incredible. One more example: during my time with them I suffered from akathisia where I would walk for 16-18 hours a day. I finally had to reinstate, while still under their care, when that state of forced walking became permanent. They referred to this as "restlessness." Akathisia, as restlessness. There are now giant signs up in dozens of subway stops in NYC warning patients and doctors of the risks of akathisia. I like the idea of them having to see those signs every day. They probably take cabs.

 

So, are doctors records sometimes suspicious? In my case, they were either destroyed, falsified, kept secret, or written to protect the interest of the doctors and not that of the patient. Also, they are utterly subjective on some counts, just by nature of human interactions. Of all the official documents I have ever seen in my life, medical documents are the least trustworthy, the most easily falsified, and the hardest to obtain if the doctor simply refuses (presumably you could sue).

 

I suggest to people that they record their conversation with their doctors with their phones. There are consent laws that govern this depending on the state, but if your doctor will not consent to their advice to you being recorded, while keeping their own record, then you should (if possible) get a new doctor, because they are not to be trusted. If that is not possible, brining a second party to keep detailed notes is a good move (or do so yourself). This is just smart for anyone, but especially for people who either have, or who are mistaken for having, mental health issues, as we are more easily dismissed. I also think the quality of the answers one receives my be improved if the doctor knows they are being recorded. They may be a little more fulsome with their warnings about possible risks.

 

It's a long answer, but I hope it is helpful and not to exhausting to wade through.

 

quiet

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Quiet, I had a similar experience. My provider is also part of a university center. Years after I was prescribed, a note of informed consent given was added to my records. Needless to say, I was not informed, at least in terms of what would have made me refuse the drug. Espy
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