Finding the Right Medication

What are the Challenges?

Physicians and Nurse practitioners alike must do what is in the best interest of their patients. Practicing medicine requires looking at many factors of a patient, some of which include:

• Your age

• Your physical health and tolerance levels

• Relaying an accurate evaluation of the effectiveness of a medication or side effects

• Other medications/supplements that you may be taking

We relay all this to encourage you when narrowing down the specific medication(s) appropriate for you takes time. Often, this will require multiple appointments over the months, and even after you are ‘stabilized’ on your medication, any change in one or more of the above factors can necessitate revisiting your prescription.

Licensed physicians and nurse practitioners are also accountable to government and medical oversight, which can audit or monitor their prescribing patterns, especially regarding controlled substances.

Overprescribing frequency or quantities can and should be censored to avoid abuse or misdirection by the prescriber and the patient. Impropriety or not looking out for the patient’s best interests can expose the prescriber to loss of licensure or possible malpractice.

In addition, the provider realizes that not every patient will be an abuse or an addiction risk, but carefully monitoring the prescribing of controlled substances IS looking out for what is in the best interest of the patient.