"When I go away, I make sure another doctor is covering for me and share their contact info on my phone message and out of office email," Manhattan psychiatrist Carlos Saavedra told me. "A patient's treatment plan may include medication, seeing a trauma specialist or getting more support from Twelve Step meetings, depending on an individual’s needs." But he prefers they discuss it with him first.
My addiction specialist, Dr. W, promoted this type of open relationship, as long as he was "the primary" (as polyamorists and detectives on "Law & Order: SVU" called it). Because I was having a hard time giving up cigarettes, alcohol and pot, he recommended a psychopharmacologist colleague of his, hoping antidepressant medication would ease my extreme withdrawal. It didn't.
