Dr. Milos Zivkovic, MD

I had a very disappointing and concerning experience with Dr Milos Zivkovic. After seeing them for my mental health needs, they suddenly terminated our professional relationship with zero explanation. This happened while I was in a very difficult place and specifically reached out for help. A psychiatrist should provide a safety net, but DR Z did the opposite. Please be careful if you are looking for long-term, stable psychiatric care.

Our adult son was diagnosed as having bipolar I disorder by two prominent medical facilities including the Mayo Clinic (MN). However, several years ago he began to be treated by Dr. Milos Zivkovic. Almost immediately he informed our son that he simply suffered from a combination of depression and anxiety rather than bipolar. Unfortunately, the two conditions are treated very differently and our son’s behavior began to deteriorate including delusions, paranoia and isolation. As his family, we began to have serious concerns regarding his safety and well-being. Not living in MN, we sought the advice of a prominent psychiatrist in CT specializing in mood disorders who urged us to send a letter to Dr. Zivkovic expressing our concerns for his safety and noting that our son’s behavior had continuously deteriorated under his care. In our letter we reiterated the diagnoses of the other two medical institutions and detailed our observations regarding troubling behaviors. Finally, … we asked that he not inform our son of our letter for fear that it might trigger a manic episode. Despite our letter alerting Dr. Zivkovic of these troubling behaviors, there was no observable change in behavior over the following months. Equally troubling, Dr. Zivkovic informed our son of our letter despite no medical justification for doing so. What little contact we had with our son became non-existent. Having dealt with our share of psychiatrists, not only would I not recommend Dr. Zivkovic, but I would urge extreme caution for several reasons: First, he appeared to have rejected the diagnoses of two highly regarded medical institutions. Second, when troubling behaviors were brought to his attention, he did not attempt to seek confirmation or additional information. Third, when asked specifically that our letter be kept in confidence, he proceeded to notify our son resulting in the negative reaction we feared. There was no medical justification for him doing this. Later, our son returned to Mayo Clinic where they confirmed the bipolar diagnosis and recommended a different treatment. Whether Dr. Zivkovic’s medical judgment was due to his education (medical school in Serbia), poor judgment, or resentment caused by the opinion expressed by other medical institutions we don’t know. However, in our opinion, it did not meet the standards one should expect.