psych1 wrote on Nov 25
th, 2008 at 8:55am:
With all due respect, I believe you have overlooked an important factor here. There seems to be alot of focus on the MMPI-2 as a diagnostic instrument. However, this is not its sole fuction in a clinical context.
In your situation, as a psychologist, I am very interested in the quality of life of individuals coping with chronic pain. Since the MMPI-2 is sensitive to changes in distress over time, the MMPI-2 is often used as objective way of quantifying emotional distress level and emotional symptomatology and tracking their change over time. It is very common to give the MMPI pre and post treatment for chronic pain syndromes, so the treating physician can see how quality of life has improved (or possibly not improved) after a course of treatment. This is for your benefit, as it allows the treating physician to: 1.)understand how you are coping with chronic illness/pain so appopriate referals can be considered (ie., psychiatry, psychotherapy services if needed) 2.) as a way of tracking and objectively measuring improvments in emotional/psychological functioning after a treatment has been implemented.
Although the cost is a pain (and I can sympthathize), you should feel comforted by the fact that your physician is taking a look at the entire clinical picture here. Until recetly, "sucessful treatment" in physical medicine was defined solely as "symptom eradication."Fortunatley, in recent years, medical provders have become more cognizant of overall "quality of life" issues and the emotional/psychologcial sequelae that affect the chronic pain population. Personally, I would take comfort in the fact that your doctor is viewing you as whole person, rather than just a black box of symptoms that need to be treated.
That's all fine and dandy if I WANTED to take the test, or if I was WILLING to shell out the $200. bucks! I was FORCED to take this test, all patients MUST take this test if they want treatment from the Pain Management Clinic!
I can't see my pain managemnt doc until he sees the results of the stupid test. Then he's gonna say "Gee, Judi, looks like you have a bit of occassional depression and you seem to be suffering from fatigue". And I'm gonna say "Yeah doc, severe back pain has a tendency to piss people off, wear them out, and overall cause great frustration at the inability to carry out daily chores. But thanks for the $200. dollar opinion, which I could have told you for FREE."
Psych, you obviously have no concept of out of control medical costs, and the average person's INABILITY to shell out $200. bucks at the drop of a hat. You don't have a clue what happens to the average Joe when he can't come up with the extra money, especially around the holidays when money is tight enough already!
Well I can tell you what happens, they don't get treatment for their back pain! That's right! They go home, look at their bills, decide the power bill has to be paid first, and the back pain treatment has to be PUT OFF until sometime after the New Year, when they get a chance to cough up the extra money! Chew on this: you are CAUSING people to SUFFER. Suffer for weeks and weeks longer than necessary.
Like a lot of people my age, I have other medical problems I am dealing with, including the posibility of endometrial cancer, having to get surgery for that, which obviously takes priority over my aching back. I had to cancel my appointment with the eye doc to do cateract surgery, coz I just can't afford it right now!
The ONLY thing this test does is wrecks havoc on my empty wallet, while plumping up the wallets of God knows how many folks who work in the psych system. And wastes VALUABLE time, time I don't have, fooling around with nonsense. I can quickly and easily describe my quality of life to my doc, I sure as heck didn't need some expensive test to do my talking for me.
I have very good insurance, BCBS, even so, the part I have to pay is quickly adding up to well over $1,000.00 and that Is BEFORE I get my bill for the endo surgery! God only knows when I'll be able to get back to the eye doc, but please pat yourself on the back that your industry is hurting me.