Dr. Akua Owusua Owusu, MD

Dr. Owusu was exceptional. She was caring, personable and made me feel at ease. I felt she had lifted a burden off my shoulders when I left her office. She is a God send.

I was suicidal when I first met Dr. Owusu.Now, I am living the life I thought impossible.Dr.Owusu saved my life and guide me to the person I am today.She is an angel of mercy to me.

Do not go to this Psychiatrist. This doc saw me twice, sent me home both times with grocery bags full of med samples. Spent very little time listening to me, and only asked me a few questions before determining her "diagnosis". Why do people like her get into a business that people need help? Does it make her feel superior, I suppose? To make it that much worse, I had been on disability with my employer. Without telling me, she called my disability rep and told her I was ready to go back to work. Since she did not tell me she was doing this, I was expected to show up to work on a certain day. When I did not, I lost my job because of her!!!

Anxiety and depression have historically been my issues, and I am happy to say I have found a medication that works well for me. Now on to the Dr. review. The first few visits with this Dr. were ok. She put me on a new antidepressant and changed my anti-anxiety medication to one with a longer half life. She was pleasant enough.After 3 months on the new anti anxiety medication I told her that I did not like it and would like to return to the medication that had worked for me. She said, really! Youll never get off that drug. How demoralizing. It took courage to ask, and she denied my request.We decided at that visit that I would up my antidepressant dose by doing one pill/day and then 2 /day intermittently, and then consider where I was in its medical value to me. We did not change the prescription, however, and I ran out without seeing it coming. I called on a Thursday morning and explained the situation. The receptionist told me that the Dr. usually requires 48-72 hours for… a refill, but in this situation she didnt see a problem with it being called in before the weekend. I waited and called the pharmacy for the next two days but nothing. This is a drug they say not to just go off of cold turkey because there will be severe side effects, so I was concerned. So I called her number on the weekend and got her answering service. I was told each time I called that someone would get back to me. No one ever did. I finally went into a medical walk-in clinic, told them the story, and they were kind enough to prescribe 10 pills to get me through. I was aggravated and upset by the lack of follow up, both by her office personnel and her answering service.Fast forward to next visit. I told her what had happened. She knew nothing about it, but got pretty defensive about it, telling me that she doesnt refill prescriptions on the weekend, and those people should not have told me that. Of course there was never an apology.Then we got into the medication issue again. This time I asked her more pointedly if I could return to the previous anti anxiety medication and she told me no. We went several rounds on this, and I told her I had a right to advocate for myself and that I felt a loss of trust [mostly because of the insensitive treatment I was getting from her]. I dont recall her response but she talked a lot, mostly about the abuse of her time and how hard she tries. Im a therapist by trade, so I know how these things go. I suddenly felt like it was her session, not mine. Well then I had to ask her about sleep meds because I wasnt sleeping real well even though the antidepressant was working well. I could tell she was pretty aggravated by then and she said, after some discussion, Ill just prescribe the medication; you do what you want with it. I couldnt believe my ears. She finished writing the prescriptions, and got up turned her back on me and walked out to get her next patient! I was astounded. I caught her in the hallway and quietly asked her why she had just turned her back on me and left without a word. She told me that she didnt know what to say to me; that I had been so nasty that she left, that she had never seen this side of me before, that she would not prescribe the other medication, and if I wanted to come back in 3 months that was up to me. When she told me I was nasty she said it in much the same way someone would talk about soured milk or rotten meat. It had that edge to the word that made it sound horrible. In fact, and I told her this, I was not at all nasty. While I engaged her in dialogue about these issues, which I have every right to do, I never raised my voice, I wasnt sarcastic. I was respectful. I had been clearly frustrated by the weekend thing but that wasnt ok either. I could just see it; now Im a problem patient, when in fact her lack of therapeutic ability to listen, to really hear, was totally lacking. I have never been treated by a mental health professional like this ever in my life. Not that this give me any more credibility than any other person, but Im a professor with a PhD in the mental health field, and I know good skills from bad skills. Im no histrionic bimbo as she portrayed me to be. Her anger and defensiveness seemed almost baby-ish to me. Instead of an intelligent adult-to-adult conversation about my care I got a dose of her counter-therapeutic, my way or no way, gibberish. I have gone into such detail because I want these reviews to matter so people can really get a feel for both people. I give her a big fat zero.

Dr. Owusu is wonderful doctor. She is family orientated and understands the family structure. She also has a realistic views of things.