Glenn: Starting and changing medicines – The need to change medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Glenn
Male
Age at interview: 50
Number of medicines: 6
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Glenn tried a number of medicines before seeing a psychiatrist, who prescribed the appropriate medicine. He also reassured Glenn that he was right in thinking previous medicines were not effective.
Jacqueline:
How many had you tried before finding the lithium?
Glenn:
Five. They were medications for bipolar and also, prior to having seen a psychiatrist, I'd also gone through the resume of taking all the different types of antidepressants, which none of them worked. It was a bit disheartening, but it wasn't until I was told by a psychiatrist the antidepressants were never going to work, they were never going to do anything for you. That made me feel better. It made me think that, well, it's not as bad as it was made out to be by the GPs. I got the feedback from them that I was drug-shopping by saying, it's not working. I was being made to feel a little bit guilty by saying, it's not working. The psychiatrist made me feel normal again and said, no, there's no reason for you to feel guilty. They were never going to work.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.