Dr. Randall Gene Sullivan, MD

My experience with Dr. Sullivan as a patient has been mixed. He listens to me much better than any other psychiatrist I've seen, although I'm not too sure that he puts too much consideration of what I say into the process of selecting medications. For instance, he was given all of my medical records for the past 20+ years of my life, in which it explicitly states that I've had very bad mental and physical reactions from every anti-depressant/anti-psychotic that I've ever been on (sadly, the number of different anti-depressants/anti-psychotics I've tried is above 20, with no positive response), yet the first med he prescribed was...you guessed it...an anti-d. It caused horrific suicidal thoughts and very worrisome chest pain, the latter caused by anxiety. After that mess was over, he did actually let me have a decent amount of input concerning a list of off-label meds used to treat depression that he deemed reasonable for me, and let me choose which group of medicines I would give a shot. He chose one of the meds from the group I picked and this resulted in the best reduction of depression I've ever experienced! Besides the first script I received from him, I only have 2 major complaints: 1)He kept upping my dose and I'm now at the maximum daily limit according to the FDA. It is also a highly addictive drug, which scares me because about 10 months ago, I was forcefully weened off of an anti-anxiety med much too quickly(this was prior to seeing Dr. Sullivan)which resulted in horrible withdrawal symptoms such as tremors, hot/cold flashes, etc. I'm now happily back on that medication. 2)It is literally impossible to speak to him outside of my appointments, which are spaced too far apart for my liking(about 5-7 weeks in-between appointments). Whenever I call his office, I always have to talk to one of his staff and they simply can't tell me what Dr. Sullivan can because of patient confidentiality. This is becoming borderline unacceptable, even when I do remind myself that he has a small office and a decently large patient base. I don't see how 5 minutes on the phone would interrupt things much at all since that's about how much time of each of my sessions is spent interrupted by staff or by phone calls from other parts of the facility to the Doctor, but to be fair, I don't have the facts behind why that rule is in place. Overall, Dr. Sullivan is very kind and empathetic, but I wouldn't recommend him to anyone that has depression and anxiety to the extent I do.