Appointments

Questions to Ask Your Psychiatrist About Your Treatment

Medically reviewed · Updated 2026

Psychiatry appointments are short. Fifteen or twenty minutes disappears fast, and it's easy to leave with a new prescription but no real understanding of the plan. Here's how to make that time count.

About your current medication

• "What counts as an adequate trial of this medication — what dose and how long before we know if it's working?"
• "What are we looking for to decide it's working, or not?"
• "If this one doesn't work, what's our next step?"

About where you stand

• "Given what I've already tried, do I meet criteria for treatment-resistant depression?"
• "Should we consider switching, or adding a second medication (augmentation)?"

About the options beyond medication

• "Am I a candidate for TMS? Would my insurance cover it at this point?"
• "Would ketamine or esketamine (Spravato) make sense for me, and what would it cost?"
• "Is there a therapy type you'd specifically recommend alongside medication?"

About the practical side

• "What side effects should I watch for, and which ones mean I should call you?"
• "How will we track whether this is actually helping?"
• "When should we check in next?"

Walk in prepared, not overwhelmed

This is exactly what Treatment Finder's PDF export is for. Answer the questionnaire, review the options matched to your situation, and generate a one-page summary to hand your psychiatrist. It turns "I don't know, nothing's working" into a focused, informed conversation — the difference between an appointment that stalls and one that moves your care forward.

Put this into practice

Treatment Finder maps all 38 options to your situation and exports a PDF for your appointment. $4.99 once, no subscription. Get it on the App Store →