Dr. Lauren Katherine Merrell, MD

Horrible

dangerous practitioner, not even a doctor. dangerous prescribing practices, you’ll end up hospitalized or dead with other doctors cleaning up her mess. incredibly condescending while extremely uneducated. run- seriously, you’re risking your life at each visit. surprised she’s still licensed.

I've never left a negative review about a medical professional before, but I feel compelled to do so here and elsewhere. Lauren Merrell (pka Lauren Deisenroth) is truly the LEAST empathetic mental health professional I've ever seen--and I'll say up front, I've seen quite a few. Had an initial appointment with her; she made a formal show of asking if a med student could sit in. While I really did not want that (esp given that it was the first time that I was meeting her), I felt compelled to assent. She has that manner about her: very high-handed, cocky even. My biggest complaint about her pertained to what I perceived as her thinking that I was a drug seeker or that I was taking drugs that were not appropriate. Note that one of my very top goals in seeking treatment was to get off of two addictive drugs that I have been taking forever--and I made this clear to her in the first 15 minutes of our meeting, going so far as to bring in a protocol on how to safely taper off of one of… them. This apparently made no impression, since she made me sign a drug "agreement" before prescribing this drug--that required, among other humiliations, that I be forced to random drug screenings, like a drug abuser, at my own expense (rather than someone made dependent on the drug by the very system for which she works, who is desperate to get off of the drug). She also told me that, despite having previously been diagnosed with ADHD by several psychiatrists--and undoubtedly meeting all pertinent criteria--she could prescribe ADHD medication unless I saw Legacy's part time diagnostician, a psychologist, and this person diagnosed me yet again with ADHD. Finally, at the close of business, and despite breaking down sobbing between the trauma of repeating my story and being subject to her humiliations and diatribes, she apparently HAD to leave for the day; she basically shoved me out of her office at 5p to the front desk, where the receptionists looked at me sympathetically. It looked like they knew her and her ways. Legacy has a LOT to improve in terms of their psych team and protocols. Despite having my PCP there, I will never seek help from their mental health professionals again. After complaining in detail, a social worker called me and was (like the front office staff) quite sympathetic and apologetic. Just DO NOT see her. "Dr. Merell, MD" is NOT an MD, by the way (I have no idea how she navigates breaching what I would suppose to be an ethical standard to not misrepresent one's credentials); she is a nurse practicioner with an advanced degree in research. And she should have, most emphatically, stayed in research, far from patients. Toxic.

I contacted Ms. Merrell at my clinic to request that she provide mwith a companion animal reasonable accomodation letter for housing. She refused to do this because it was the policy of the clinic not to provide these letters,