Dr. Kamaleswary Ravichandran, MD

Went to see her at OMG for severe anxiety and depression,my anxiety is so bad that I cannot drive for the moment. I explained to Dr. Ravi that I had an extensive history with medications and that I knew what had worked in the past, (as I am not on any meds now) and that I wanted to try a conservative approach with 1 anti depressant and 1 anti anxiety benzodiazepine, klonopin, at a low dosage (.5 mg 2xdaily). Previously I had been on four meds at once, so I wanted to just do two. I have been off the meds for six months now, with no dependence problems and the klonopin dosage that I was on was 1mg 2xdaily. She tried to insinuate that I might try to sell these on the street and that they were highly addictive. With my past, I have never had any drug abuse problems other than with alcohol (just to clarify, I have been sober now for 6 months, and I only drank for a year after my father's death) and it was clear, that in my case, the benzodiazepines in fact weren't addictive as I clearly hadn't had any problems with them before. With her "extensive education" she should have realized her error. Then she tried to deceive me by telling me that benzodiazepines don't work for anxiety, and that I should try the SSRI route. This would've been a great idea had it not been for the fact that I had an extensive previous history trying that route and when I tried benzodiazapines, they worked! Once again, strike two on her "extensive knowledge". She also tried to claim that since she was in internal medicine that she would not prescribe the benzodiazepines as she wasn't a psychiatrist. Strike three: there is a clear reason why a psychiatrist must get an INTERNAL MEDICINE specialty as this is the only factor in their education that allows them to prescribe medications! So, once again she was wrong, an MD is allowed to prescribe almost all of the drug scheduled substances save illicit drugs. I repeatedly offered evidence of my diagnoses to her, however she refused and didn't believe me. So, as a nice fanfare of professional misconduct she goes out of the room (as she needed to do a little paperwork) and she was agitated that I countered her arguments numerous times so she returned to me with some papers and no prescription. Then SHE LEAVES without a word and I am completely confused as to how to get out of the labyrinth of corridors in this large medical office, leaving me to my own devices on how to get back to the front room! So I found my way to the receptionist and explained that there were no paper prescriptions and that this doctor was the worst I had ever been to in my life. Turns out, she did give me an electronic prescription for Lexapro (thanks) and no anti anxiety med (the whole reason for going to the office). Thanks Dr. Ravi, I tell you I'm thirsty and you give me a sandwich! As a last token of her divine medical wisdom, she makes no mention of "Anxiety" on my chart and only lists "Depression" as my diagnosis. Having been to a plethora of specialists in my life and them all saying, "you have severe anxiety with agoraphobia" I find this woman to be as humorous as Bozo the Clown! I would say that if she was able to make these mistakes and to be completely passive and non aggressive in trying to alleviate my symptoms, she may do this for you also, regardless of the fact that you are seeing her for psychiatric reasons!