Well, it is a case of the king's new clothes. Dr. Orenstein is awful, but reality lags behind his reputation (something perhaps built decades ago).\r
\r
If I could give a zero to Dr. Orenstein in this forum, I would. What's sad is that Dr. Orenstein was referred to me by an extraordinary general physician who - in 20 years - has always provided me with exceptional referrals for specialists. Thus, unlike Jane Doetoo, I did not rely on anonymous ratings but on someone within the medical field. While Dr. Orenstein's personality does nothing to help establish an immediate rapport with his patients, it was his prescription of medications that was a serious and specific problem for me. I saw him several times and, when I wasn't showing improvement with one drug, he switched me to a category of drugs to which I'd previously had a horrible reaction. I'd specifically told him that I'd had a horrible reaction to the class of drugs and when he again tried to get me to try one drug in that category I told him I didn't want to do it. He said just about the worst thing you could say to convince a vulnerable patient: ""Well, if you were a member of my family, I'd encourage you to take this drug."" I trusted him and I took the drug. It took a couple of weeks for the full, hellish side effects to kick in (all of which he tried to minimize when I told him about them). When I finally made an appointment with another psychiatrist about how to get off the drug, the receptionist at the other psychiatrist's office was aware of the problem with the drug and told me that her physicians had a whole tapering system for getting people off that particular drug. (The receptionist! Not a nurse! Someone with presumably no medical training knew that there were problems with that drug!) It took me a whole six months to taper and I've since heard first-hand nightmare stories about the drug and read second-hand reports of how the drug can affect certain people. \r
\r
So, here's a physician who must market himself really well within the medical community, but who isn't living up to his reputation with his patients. First, he didn't listen to me. Second, he made me take something that I told him was a huge risk with me (and that's not something a patient is normally able to know). Third, he got me to trust him and to take the drug by saying the one thing that would inspire trust in that situation and that was wholly inappropriate - ""If you were someone in my family, I'd have you take this drug."" Fourth, he failed to acknowledge that within a certain significant percentage of people, that particular drug (within that particular class of drugs) is so horrible that there's a whole regimen for tapering so that one can get off it without having the truly debilitating side effects. \r
\r
I would have been much, much healthier if I had never seen Dr. Orenstein and taken no drug during that difficult period of my life. The only reason I never reported him to whomever one reports these things is that I did not want to relive the truly awful experience. I hope that this rating will help others either quit him immediately as Jane Doetoo did (very smart of her) or never even make an appointment with him because of the risk. You'll all avoid at least the potential for the agony I went through.
more