Do NOT trust this psychiatrist with prescribing meds for your mental health (anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, benzo's). This seemingly harmless, seemingly compassionate doctor is dangerous and put my life in jeopardy. Dr.Perry is frighteningly incompetent: she desperately lacks knowledge and expertise in regards to medication side effects and dosage, has no idea how to take patients off medication safely and responsibly, and if you call her for advice in regards to problems/side effects with your medication she will just say "there's nothing we can do, you just have to ride it out".
I always think that people who write really long reviews on Yelp are either bored or crazy. I am neither. I am trying to help you by sharing my devastating and shocking experience with this psychiatrist and that necessitates a long review.
If you are considering this doctor, this review is a MUST READ!
This psychiatrist had no clue that the medication (Abilify) she prescribed to me has caused severe, chronic, and sometimes permanent tremors in thousands of people. I did some research when I first noticed the small tremors pulsing in my head and neck and read that it was in fact a side effect of Abilify. However, unbeknownst to me, the pharmaceutical company seriously minimized the severity of the tremors. Dr. Perry confidently insisted that the tremors were not being caused by the Abilify, and told me to see a neurologist. The neurologist ruled out Parkinsons, and sent me to a well-known hospital clinic for movement disorders. I was evaluated by a team of doctors including 2 neurologists and a psychiatrist. The results of the clinic evaluation were that the Ablilify was causing the tremors. The doctors said that they have seen thousands of cases of the same problem in patients who take Abilify. They said there was no guarantee that if I went off the Abilify that the symptoms would disappear but suggested that I go off of it. That is a whole other story (see below) but I DID go off of Abilify and a year later I no longer have the tremors at all. Thank God!
The night-marish withdrawal from Abilify I experienced was absolutely preventable! Dr. Perry put my mental health in danger and weened me off of Abilify in 2 days. I became suicidally depressed and had awful awful panic attacks and anxiety on top of the severe depression (which has never happened to me throughout being depressed). After calling Dr. Perry, and being dismissed by her, I sought out two second opinions by alternative psychiatrists with over 20 years experience prescribing medications.They were both horrified that she weened me off the medication in 2 days and said any sane and experienced psychiatrist would have slowly weened me off of Abilify, allowing me to ween off in 4-6 weeks. The psychiatrists both suggested immediate changes to my meds which worked, but took some time. They also said that the withdrawal I was experiencing could have been 100% avoided if Dr. Perry had taken me off the medication a lot more slowly.
At the same time I went off of another medication, because I did not like the side effects, and had severe withdrawal from that drug as well due to the same issue: Dr Perry took me off this additional medication WAY TOO FAST.
The moral of this story is DO NOT SEE Dr. Cynthia Perry for medication management. She caused me severe unnecessary suffering, and since I lost 6 weeks of work due to my incapacitation from depression, I lost a lot of income.
Take it from someone who suffered miserably due to this Doctor's inexperience, lack of knowledge,lack of intelligence and poor judgement, I hope by writing this review I can help spare you from going thru the dangerous and horrible side effects of this psychiatrist! read more