I am currently working with a neurosurgeon doing some research and I have noticed that a majority of the patients that come in to see this doctor are depressed. I understand that depression is common among people with chronic pain and debilitating injuries. How much psych is actually practiced in neurosurg? I mean, beyond just recognizing depression, do many neurosurgeons prescribe psych meds or is that something they generally leave to the psychiatrists? I would imagine insurance companies wouldn't want to pay surgeons to prescribe such meds.
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Psych in Neurosurgery
Started by umean2tellme
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Little to no time is spent by the average neurosurgeon prescribing "psych" meds. There is some interesting work in DBS for depression, but that is specialized and deals more with the surgical aspect of depression. An understanding of the psychological issues is important when dealing with these patients, but actually treating "depression" would be quite rare.
P.S. Insurance companies don't pay physicians more or less depending on what prescriptions they write.
I bet I know one of the neurosurgeons who you work with if it's in Miami (I spent a month in their Neurosurgery department). I've seen neurosurgeons provide reassurance and definitely follow up on their patients' depression, but they leave the management up to the patient's prescribing primary care physician/psychiatrist. I'm interested in functional neurosurgery, so this is a topic that is interesting to me as well.
