Response to Dr. Telford Layne's article in the Sunday March 15, edition

Response to Dr. Telford Layne’s article in the Sunday March 15, edition

Mar 17, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

This is a serious matter. While I do not entirely disagree with your concern about patients questioning their medications, I have a problem with publishing such advice on an open forum in this manner.

Why? Because even though certain medications may not fully resolve a patient’s mental health condition, they often enable individuals to function in their daily lives. Suggesting that patients who discontinue their medication can therefore be problematic and potentially harmful.

Should psychiatrists simply prescribe medications without considering other forms of treatment? If that is your position, it would have been helpful to cite specific examples or evidence. Without doing so, the statement unintentionally casts the entire local psychiatric fraternity in a negative light.

As a student of psychology who has worked with mental wellness issues among both juveniles and adults, I personally tend to be cautious when recommending medication. However, I would never advise a client to stop taking a prescribed medication on their own.

What I would do, and what I have done in practice, is encourage the client to speak with the prescribing physician and request a review of the treatment regimen, particularly if psychological interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) appear to be producing positive results.

To say that you would “advise discontinuing these medications unless your psychiatrist or psychologist can explain your diagnosis, the duration of treatment, the side effects, and alternative options” presupposes that all individuals dealing with mental health challenges possess the knowledge or confidence to navigate those complex medical discussions. Additionally, given your relatively recent entry into the field of psychology, some readers may question the basis for what appears to be a rather sweeping and unsupported conclusion. It might be more constructive to consult with a few experienced psychiatrists who have institutional knowledge of the local mental health landscape, obtain their professional perspectives, and then revise your piece to include their empirical and clinical insights.

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