symptoms and doctors

My general rule of thumb is to tell every doctor as much information as I can. They are the experts on how diseases, medications, and symptoms are inter-connected; not me! In my case, lack of appetite and fatigue were addressed by my rheumy as being part of lupus -- we changed medications around till we found a combination that works. While the rhuemy explored the sadness to some degree, he ultimately decided a psychiatrist was better prepared to address medications for long-term depression. Some rheumies want to make sure anything being caused by a medication is addressed by the dr prescribing the medication, others want to pass some of these side-symptoms along to a PCP or other dr as needed. You just have to keep feeling out your drs and you will learn what should be addressed by whom -- since lupus is so different for each of us, there is no sure way of defining what drs will be needed or which ones will address which issues. Hang in there,