Dr. Upadhyay will recommend 30 minutes follow up appointments depending on your treatment plan. Typically, follow up appointments will be at monthly intervals. In the beginning or if medication changes are being made, they may be more frequent. Even if her patients are very stable, Dr. Upadhyay does see all of her patients at least every three months to monitor treatment and ensure safety.
Even though her expertise revolves around psychotropic medication management, Dr. Upadhyay is conservative with medications. A medication will be carefully prescribed, only if indicated, once a need for medication is confirmed following an assessment. Being a mother of two young children, Dr. Upadhyay knows how hard it is for parents to have their child on medication. The follow up appointments will be spent on reviewing goals, coping skills, progress and psychotherapies. Support and psychoeducation will be provided. Appropriate referrals will be made. Follow up appointment time will also be spent on monitoring medications, and reviewing side effects if they have been prescribed. Dr. Upadhyay will try to use as few and low doses of medications and review need for medications from time to time. She understands that medications are part of your treatment plan and not your only treatment plan. She will be happy to work with you and/or your child’s school, therapists and doctors that they may be seeing to coordinate care and to help your child as a whole.
If you are on a medication, Dr. Upadhyay will send your prescription refills electronically to your pharmacy during an appointment time. In case a medication refill is needed outside of appointment times, please contact our front desk to schedule a follow up appointment as soon as possible. Once a follow up appointment has been scheduled, an emergency 3-5 day supply of medications may be called in if Dr. Upadhyay feels appropriate to last until your appointment. Her preference is to always send your medication refills to your pharmacy during the visit so that she can monitor your medications appropriately. Please schedule a follow up appointment before you leave the office.
Please remember that for safety reasons that controlled substance prescriptions such as stimulant medication prescriptions for ADHD treatment can only be written during an appointment time. In most situations, Dr. Upadhyay’s policy is to taper and discontinue all benzodiazepines due to their potential to cause sedation, tolerance, dependency and cognitive decline.
Please note that Dr. Upadhyay will not prescribe any medications if you are using street drugs or abusing prescription medications. In these situations, she will refer you to a substance abuse program if indicated.