Question for conference on HPPD

[PM87]

Dear board users,

 

 

I'm a second year psychiatry resident working at the Radboud university medical centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and have recently had my first contact with a patient suffering from HPPD. Since this diagnosis is not known among many of my colleagues I thought it would be relevant to dedicate a clinical conference to the topic next week. The goal of this conference is to talk to a group of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatry residents about what HPPD is, its symptoms and evidence for treatments from the literature. My goal is to create at least some understanding about HPPD among colleagues so they will be able to recognize symptoms and what someone with HPPD is going through every day.

 

However, since not a lot is known on the subject, I was wondering from the perspective of the patient, what would be the most important thing you would want your doctor to know about HPPD?

 

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Peter Mulders

Psychiatry resident

RadboudUMC, the Netherlands

 

PS: if anyone is interested, I could upload the final presentation with a summary of findings from research when done.

[onedayillsailagain]

Goed om te horen!

First and foremost I'd like doctors to understand that HPPD is not a psychotic disorder, and to not press patients with that possibility, which may cause for greater anxiety. Second, I'd like doctors to be informed of the status of medication responses to HPPD; e.g. it seems to be a common misconception that SSRI's attenuate HPPD symptoms, whilst in practice this is rarely the case. I'd also like them to understand the level to which it can be debilitating in all areas; and that patients simply to not have the time to go through 6 doctors before getting an adequate diagnosis, and that it can be extremely demoralizing to have to perpetually reiterate your story to no avail. Also, I'd like for them to understand the high co-morbidity of anxiety, depersonalization, derealization, etc. for DP/DR by itself is already of low occurrence and often misdiagnosed, which may lead to further confusion. Perhaps also to know that early short-term intervention with benzodiazepines may impede the development/exacerbation of anxiety, of course whilst informing patients of the nature of these medications.

That's all I can come up with for the moment. If you've any questions, shoot.
Groeten.

[PM87]

Those are some great points, I'll definitely pass them on. Thanks for the input!