Adventures in Taiwanese psychiatry

Psychiatry update!

China Medical University Hospital (branches in Taichung and Beigang) has done an admirable job in taking care of my anxiety and depression.  I cannot get Vistaril, but they are giving me Xanax like the end of the world is nigh, which is good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

One experience worth recounting is that I ran out of Celexa and went abruptly onto Lexapro, which given the chemical similarity of the two medications, you’d think wouldn’t be a big deal.  It was a big deal.  A very big deal.  I felt like shit-death for two weeks.  Don’t do what I did.  Ease off one to the other, even if you doctor doesn’t instruct you to do so.

Train to misery town. Mind the gap.

They are free and easy with the ambien.  I take ambien more to ease evening anxiety than to sleep.  My doctor kindly prescribed me Neurontin, which my old doctor cross-prescribed because it takes a bite out of the anxiety.  I also got an Abilify kick, which is very helpful.

All in all, my experiences managing my anxiety and depression from the pharmaceutical stand point have been reassuring.  My visits to the doctor plus medicine cost about $33 U.S.  We really need socialized health care in the States.

Adventures in Taiwanese Psychiatry

I’ve had issues with depression since I was a small child.  The first clear memory I have that was undubitably depression was when I was 7.  I can remember suffering a lot of anxiety from at least the age of 8 onward.  This is very much a chemical thing, although situation does impact its severity.  But there is no time when my life is so good that I won’t have issues with one of these.  I take a cocktail of medications that do a really decent job at treating these problems (therapy and studying Buddhism have helped too, but that’s not what this post is about).  I take lexapro or celexa as the main medication.  The great add-on is a neurontin/vistaril cocktail that seem to work in symbiosis to both calm me down and mildly elevate my mood.  These two are great because they mean I don’t really need benzos (xanax, klonapin, etc.) very often.

I brought a hefty supply of my meds from the U.S., but it’s been ten weeks now and I’m running out.  So I made my first trip to the psychiatrist in Taiwan.  Here is what happened.

Floor 4, the floor of death, is missing at the hospital.

I went Chiayi Christian Hospital in Chiayi (they have a really handy on-line appointment system, which is not uncommon and is something I’d love to see more of in the U.S.).  The hospital is big and beautiful and every bit up to the standard of any American facility I’ve seen.  They have socialized health care in Taiwan, so the trip to the psychiatrist and a week’s worth of xanax and ambien cost about $12 U.S.  Nobody really spoke English except the doctor, but everyone was super helpful and nice in helping me find my way and get checked in.  I was able to go in the evening, so I didn’t have to take time off of work to go.  That was great.

Here’s where things go less well.  I brought my bottles with me to show the doctor what I had been prescribed in the U.S.  But the hospital didn’t have Celexa/Lexapro, Gabapentin (Neurontin), or Vistaril.  These drugs do exist and are available in Taiwan– I looked them up online and found the names they’re sold under here and the names of the companies that produce them.  But for some reason, the hospital just didn’t have them.  I could not get them.  I have to go to a different hospital next week and try to get my meds there.

In the States, your doctor writes you a prescription and you go to any pharmacy and they either have it in stock or can order it except under unusual circumstances like a drug shortage.  But I deduce that this is not the case in Taiwan.  Even more frustrating, the very nice doctor couldn’t tell me which hospitals have which drugs.  She knew Chang Gung Hospital in Puzi has the Celexa/Lexapro, but the other two are still a mystery.  So I have to just visit all the area hospitals until I find places that have the ones I need?  This is a monster hassle because I don’t have a car or a scooter, and not all of the hospitals have evening hours.

Additionally, I only got a week’s worth of xanax and ambien, and I am going to need to get a month’s supply or just plan on going to the hospital every week.  The closest hospital only has afternoon hours 4 days a week, and taking an afternoon off a week is not a feasible option.

As it stands, I have an appointment with another psychiatrist in a week, so I’ll take another shot at getting my medical needs met.  I will continue posting about this, since depression/anxiety are common mood disorders, and psychiatry is not as prominent here in Taiwan as it is in the U.S.