Dr. Mary Laura Nance, MD

She constantly told me I was wrong about things I'd said in the past; refused to believe I was right. Possible wrong diagnosis but won't know until I see someone else. Heart breaking to me because she felt I wasn't paying attention, 'progressing'.

This Dr has treated an aquaintance for ~10 years and the patient has gone from a depressed psychotic to a zombie-like depressed psychotic with the meds Dr has prescribed. She has not improved one iota. She HAS improved on her lies to Dr Nance though. Our mental system is set up to believe the Dr, whether she is competent or not, and this patient is in need of help. The patient sounds like she and the Dr spend more time talking about the Dr's daughters than they do the patient's problems. Dr also cancels appointments to go on out of town trips to see her family and the patient actually feels happy that she doesn't have to see her for that period. Of course she is happy, she has succeeded in bamboozeling the Dr the entire time she has "treated" her and now has more time to think about what whoppers her basket of lies will contain for their next appt. The "trust" the psychiatrist and the patient cultivate is very often used by the patient to lie to the Dr. This is a well known fact. This… also creates a false sense to the Dr (Nance) that she is doing a bang up job. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is also a well known fact. Witness to that are the stories about mentally ill patients lie their way out of a hospital and then commit horrendous crimes. Wake up Dr!

When I was in my late teens (about five years ago), my mother had me attend about ten sessions with this doctor. I'm very disappointed that she's still in practice. For the benefit of all psychiatric patients in the Sacramento area, I'd like to provide some examples of her behavior: A) Once she asked me if I had ever been sexually abused. I truthfully answered "no." She gave me a very incredulous look and stared me in the eyes for a long moment, as if trying to get me to "admit" that I was lying. B) Once she asked me a question and when I answered, my voice was a bit high pitched and small (something that sometimes happens to me because of my anxiety). I was in utter shock when she parroted my answer back to me in the same high voice with an added sing-songy tone and a sneer on her face. I am not kidding. C) I was at a real turning point in my life at the time I was seeing this doctor, and I decided that I wanted to try going off of my medications. When I told her this, she seemed… almost angry and quickly said "You WILL get depressed again." (Huge emphasis on the "will," seemingly trying to scare me into staying on the meds.) She then proceeded to insinuate that I was quitting my meds because the person I had recently started dating was somehow brainwashing and manipulating me. Seriously. Her exact words were "Your girlfriend has a lot of influence over you, doesn't she?" Everyone, please avoid this doctor at all costs. She shouldn't be allowed to practice at all.

Dr. Nance is extremely unprofessional and very judgmental. She tries to diagnose other people with mental disorders but fails to assess herself to see that she herself been afflicted with some. She exhibits an extreme case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and needs to be on medications; she talks a mile a minute and makes it difficult for a patient to express themselves. She discourages people to be their own advocates and when a patient this in nice terms tells them they are acting like an "a**hole." I highly recommend anybody who has to see her to highly look for another doctor ASAP!!

Dr. Nance tends to hire people in need for her office staff. Some of these people, when I was seeing her (in the late 90's), were unable to keep books and billed me for sessions I'd already paid for. I challenged this to Dr. Nance, she put off dealing with it, and finally she told me that she was satisfied with her bookkeeper's billing, even though I offered proof that I had already paid for the sessions I was being billed for. As a psychiatrist, she's a good listener, and she Rx'd the right med for me, making my life much better. I didn't get the feeling that she really cared about me, but I was working out a lot of anger at the time and she might have been intimidated because I yelled at her a lot.I stopped seeing her because she was so dismissive about the billing problem.