Dr. Allan Sidney Berger, MD

I started with individual therapy and eventually went to group therapy. Dr Berger was an excellent facilitator. His guidance allowed significant interactions to help patients gain important insights. Because of my 2 year experience, I became a better partner to my husband and better mother to my children.

Went to see Dr. Berger for medication management after my previous psychiatrist dropped off the face of the planet and I needed to find a doctor quickly before my medication ran out. He was extremely pushy about wanting to see me twice a week for therapy and it took me too many tries to get him to agree even to once a week visits, even though I told him several times that I was in a good place mentally and didn't feel therapy was needed at the time (I'm perfectly willing to see a therapist if I'm struggling). He also pushed me to join his group therapy session even though I told him I didn't want to do so. In retrospect I should have found another provider much more quickly than I did. An important thing for anyone to know prior to any sessions with this man is that Dr. Berger is a Freudian therapist. I wish I had known this in advance as I would never have made an appointment. I'm also angry about the fact that I specifically said in my intake that one of my previous… therapists had been a Freudian and that style of therapy is NOT a good fit for me. A responsible provider would have told me that he himself was also that type of therapist so that I could find someone else who better suited my needs. His cancellation policy is by far the most rigid and awful I've ever encountered -- if you do not cancel 5 business days ahead he will charge you full freight for your session (i.e., the price without insurance). There is no exception for unexpected illness. When I asked him about planned absences, such as vacations, he was very squirrelly and said something along the lines of "we'll figure it out." Months after finding a new doctor I'm still dealing with an invoice his incredibly disorganized billing service sent me asking for payment for sessions I paid. Some of this is compounded by the fact that he has no idea and seemingly no desire to learn what the copays are for service for the few insurance plans he accepts. As a therapist, I found him lacking. It took two full sessions to do an intake. I'm pretty familiar with initial psychiatric appointments and I've never had one take 2 hours before. This is partly due to the fact that he hand writes everything and forgets details from one session to the next. This was also true in our sessions. He asked me repeatedly what religion I practice and seemed to disapprove of the fact that I'm not religious. On the medication management front, I would give him slightly higher marks -- he switched me to a medication that seems to be working better for me, however he would also randomly tell me to up my dose without explaining why he thought it was needed. It was impossible to discuss side effects from the medication (and I did have some, my new doctor put me on a different formulation which resolved the issue) because he did not believe that anything that wasn't listed in his medication guide as a major side effect could be due to the meds.

Dr Berger urged me from my first visit to attend rehab 3 times per week. Based on other reviews, he seems to do this with every patient which struck me as odd. Particularly, since in the many years I have seen different doctors, never have I been suggested to need rehab. He seemed to be fixated on alcohol consumption and current meds and made me feel very bad. He was very discouraging each visit, so I discontinued seeing him. Dr Berger charged me for services after I stopped seeing him. I tried multiple times to understand what the charges were for to no avail. I have since reported him to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, HEAU Health Education Advocacy Unit. They have an online complaint process and I encourage anyone else who has had problems with this doctor to report him immediately.

worst doctor you can go. i didn't go for an appointment because i didn't liked him, and i called him ahead to cancel my appointment. he end up charging me $350 for that appointment plus sent me collection.