We have become aware over the last
years that many of the very effective medications that we prescribe for psychiatric
illnesses can cause serious medical problems, including weight gain, increased
insulin levels, diabetes, and abnormal cholesterol and serum lipid profiles.
The Federal Drug Administration has assigned formal “boxed warnings”
to many medications used for psychiatric illnesses for these and other potential
problems, and endorsed guidelines to follow to monitor for these conditions.
Many of these guidelines include procedures not usually performed in psychiatric offices, including weighing and measuring the abdominal girth of our patients, drawing and evaluating metabolic laboratory studies, and managing the medical problems that may be identified by this monitoring. These procedures are time consuming and specialized, and thus cannot be conveniently completed during a traditional psychiatric appointment.
We have formed The Metabolic Clinic within Scott P. Hoopes, M.D., & Associates to enable us to establish a point of skill and expertise in these more traditionally medical tasks. The Metabolic Clinic is staffed by highly trained professionals with years of general medical, endocrine, and psychiatric experience. The Metabolic Clinic allows us to provide seamless and cutting edge treatment of psychiatric illnesses within one organization.
Patients will be referred to The Metabolic Clinic when prescribed any of the medications that require ongoing monitoring. These include but are not limited to the atypical antipsychotics (Abilify, Clozapine, Geodon, Invega, Risperdal, Seroquel, and Zyprexa), the typical antipsychotics (Trilafon, Haldol, and others), valproic acid (Depakote, and others), lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid, and others), carbamazepine (Tegretol, and others), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), some antidepressants (Remeron, tricyclic antidepressants, and others), combination medications (Symbyax), and stimulants (Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, Concerta, and others).
Appointments with The Metabolic Clinic will usually be separate from the usual psychiatric appointments (although the two appointments can be coordinated when appropriate) and will proceed like any general medical appointment. The frequency of the appointments and the variables monitored will be established by approved guidelines. We have designed the clinic carefully to ensure that the expenses for these services are modest. Depending on the medication that is being monitored, however, the expense for the initial labs may be significant. Please be aware that the complete panel will seldom if ever all be necessary again.
Be sure to have your laboratory work done before your first Metabolic Clinic appointment.
