A message from Dr. Locke concerning HPPD Treatment
As the number of people who call me to schedule appointments concerning their HPPD grows, I wanted to put out a standard message to answer many frequently asked questions and hopefully give everyone more information on what I can do for them.
Since Dr. Henry Abraham, a national expert on HPPD, retired, I have been trying to be helpful to the people who reach out to me on a daily basis per his recommendation, seeking advice because they have found that only a handful of psychiatrists have any knowledge of — or experience with — HPPD.
Unfortunately, I have a part-time clinical practice and cannot provide advice to the many people who contact me every week seeking my help, people with whom I do not have an established doctor/patient relationship. Sometimes, patients contact me and ask for advice without telling me where they are located. Unfortunately, I cannot give medical advice in the absence of a doctor-patient relationship and cannot practice medicine in a state without a license in that state. I must be licensed where the patient resides — or, more specifically, where the patient is located at the time of the call.
I can, however, consult directly with your current psychiatrist if s/he is interested to do that. Clinician to clinician consultations do not require that I have a medical license in your state. There would be a fee for that, including time I spend reviewing medical records, speaking with family members, and with those clinicians involved in your care.
So, because of the demands of my time, I am forced to only try and help those who wish to engage me as a medical consultant. If a psychiatric evaluation is needed, I can only do that in states where I am licensed to practice medicine. For this reason, until the pandemic, most patients who have requested a consultation have decided to travel to Boston to see me in person for a consultation. That is not possible during the present epidemic. Fortunately, in many instances, I can provide a consultation by telemedicine.
If you are interested in discussing arranging a consultation, please let me know and we can set up a time to speak briefly by phone to determine if a consultation would be useful.
what you can do
Although I am available to do a telemedicine consultation, I suggest that you first see a local psychiatrist who specializes in neuropsychiatry or psychopharmacology. You can visit my How To Find a Psychiatrist page here.
Since many patients have difficulty finding physicians who are knowledgeable about HPPD, Dr. Locke has prepared some information you may send to your or your child’s physician, found here. He has also provided a list of academic clinical research institutions with an interest in psychedelic research found here. These institutions are not HPPD-specific, but will have psychiatrists who are knowledgeable about psychedelic drugs.
Once you have a diagnosis from a knowledgeable clinician, it is likely that anxiety or depression associated with your perceptual symptoms can be treated with medication that will alleviate your distress. It is critical that you avoid all hallucinogenic drugs of any kind, including cannabis, and keep alcohol to a minimum. You need to do this for many years, or risk a relapse even worse than what you have now. The psychiatrist you see may choose to order some tests such as an EEG, an MRI, or other diagnostic procedures. However, as long as your symptoms continue to improve, the testing can wait.
If, after local treatment, you still wish to see me, we can arrange a consultation by telemedicine or here in MA. Or, if you want to see me first despite these recommendations, we can set up a consultation appointment for a two-hour office visit sometime in about a month. I only have morning appointments Monday through Thursday.
If you are interested in discussing a formal consultation, we can setup time for a phone call in the next week, and during the call, find a time for a consultation.
Under the resources tab on my website, there is an HPPD questionnaire under Forms. I suggest that you complete that questionnaire and bring it with you to the psychiatrist you are currently seeing. There are also a list of scientific as well as popular articles to help you learn about the disorder.
If you are interested in cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, it is highly effective and available online from a number of sources such as iHope Network, Teledoc and American Well.
I hope that you will be able to find the help you need, whether that be from me or another source, and if I can be of any further assistance in any way, don’t hesitate to let me know.
Steven Locke
