Doctors do not know everything. There are good doctors, bad doctors and many who are in between. They are human beings with their own schedules, priorities, etc., and they are fallible. There are innumerable instances of them being ignorant, too. This blog is filled with examples of people whose doctors have been completely ignorant of the horrid effects of trying to get off Effexor and doctors who've been completely unsympathetic/unbelieving when their patients told them what they were experiencing. I believe in taking some responsibility for my own well-being, which means I read a lot on issues that affect me. I always consider the source since some are reliable and some aren't. I got on this blog and stay on it because I trust the Mayo Clinic (for the most part). But I am not about to accept my doctor -- who's a very good one, in my experience -- as the be-all and end-all for my medical well-being.
And the Glenmullen book, IMO, is an excellent resource!!

What you say is true..to a point. Drs necessarily rely only on what we as patients tell them at a given point and time. They rely entirely on this. Others who are around us have far more reflective value when they see changes on a daily basis.

Psychiatrists nowadays see you for 15 or so minutes and Hague how you are doing. I’ve seen this pattern to be true time and time again. Physicians, by contrast, are indeed trained in various aspects of medicine and with specialization to boot. Physicians are, however, making well educated guesses. I do not say this flippantly because I have family and friends that are well respected mds and would attest to this.

You will get physicians who disagree with each other all the time and misdiagnose all the time. I won’t bother to get into the vast history of this fact.

So if you take a specialist in psychiatry who sees you for 15 -30 min once every three months to Hague how you’re doing when you feel lucid,

and you take patients that may or may not have psychological services on the outside,

And you take other conditions that may or may not exist under the care of a general practitioner or multitude of specialists who generally don’t communicate with each other...

It becomes fairly obvious the patient is well advised to be a skeptic.

Patients may or may not have insurance and the sophistication to connect the dots, follow their own comprehensive progress and take charge of their health.

I have confirmed that insurance and pharmaceutical industries do have a significant impact on what medicines are used or not...again...personal family and friends who attest to wide spread practice of influence.

History, science, social interactions and pressures Demonstrate a constant evolution that is frequently not always in keeping with the Hippocratic oath. It is not enough to say it’s the best we have. It is more correct to say it is but a cog in a very complex wheel (a critical cog) that contributes to a whole.

The reasons I have listed are some of the modern realities patients face but they ARE realities.

I will acknowledge that the internet has led to a tidal wave of self diagnosing experts who cherry pick symptoms or rely solely on anecdotal evidence. This is how people have done for generations and that habit indeed has led to misery and tragedy for untold numbers...especially the desperately ill.

My point is this, blind faith in mds is a dangerous thing. Indeed, they are human and everything I described that goes with it. Patients (or their guardians) bear the responsibility to question medicine practitioners. It’s a multiple person effort.