Adult Psychiatry

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Before your first adult psychiatry visit

You will be asked to fill out a review of symptoms form for your provider prior to the first visit and to consent to MyChart, if you are interested, and telehealth, if you are doing your visit over telehealth. If you are doing your visit in person, a map to the office will be sent to you along with your itinerary and review of symptoms form.

If you are transferring from another provider or were recently hospitalized, please have those records sent to us prior to your visit. If you have ADHD and recently had neuropsychiatric testing, please also have that sent to our office prior to your visit, if possible. Our fax number is 314-970-9094.

If you would like us to be able to communicate with your therapist (which can be helpful), a spouse, or family member, the release of information form is available here.

Your initial evaluation: What to expect

The purpose of an initial psychiatric evaluation is to understand the reason you are in the office for an evaluation today, and obtain a detailed understanding of what has been going on with you leading up to your presentation in our office. This visit is not to evaluate past events. You can expect the visit to be a detailed history gathering session, including discussing a detailed review of your current psychiatric symptoms and substance use, past psychiatric history including your past medications and hospitalizations, past medical history, family history, social history (who do you live with, what do you do day to day), current medications, and allergies. It can be really helpful if you can bring with you a list of your current medications and any past psychiatric medications you have previously been on, how long you were on them, and the reasons you stopped them.

For therapy appointments, an initial evaluation session may be 60-90 minutes long, so please allow extra time for your first appointment.

How do I know if I need to be on medication?

Whether to consider medication is a personalized decision. At your visit your psychiatrist can work in depth with you to determine if medication would be the best course of treatment for you. Risks, benefits, and alternatives will be discussed with you at length and you should be sure to ask your psychiatrist any questions you may have. We understand that the decision to start medication can be difficult, but it can also be incredibly helpful and improve your day-to-day life and get you back to doing the things you love. However, the decision to start a medication, as well as the particular medication, timing, and dose are highly individualized decisions.

How often to see your adult psychiatry provider

This is a personalized decision agreed upon by psychiatrist and patient and based on the severity of symptoms, how often medications are being adjusted, and comfort level of the adjustments in the patient. Typically, there are more frequent appointments initially (often times monthly), which can be spaced out to every 2-4 months over time. The initial appointment will last 50 minutes to 1 hour and the follow up appointments will generally last 30 minutes.

For psychotherapy, you might have appointments with your therapist every week for at least 8 weeks. Each appointment might be about 45 minutes to an hour long. As things get better, you might see your therapist less often, until the goals for therapy are met.

Adult Psychiatrists