Dr. Paul N Barkopoulos, MD

I wish he was covered by my new insurance!

I think the title says most of it.

I was really happy with this doctor. I felt he cared and saw me as an individual. I had to wait but I think thats just how it is at any busy doctor's office.

I am not sure what he is an "expert" in or of but that was the word that was used to describe him. I was warned that he may be a little difficult to get hold of. He re-scheduled my first appointment 3 times and yet enforces a strict cancellation policy with his patients. After speaking to various health care professionals who made independent assessments of the situation, Dr Barkopoulos did in no way have my best interests at heart. He did not listen to me. He made up his own mind and not only prescribed meds that were wrong for me and one of the worst on the market, but then proceeded to tell me once i was on them that he thought I now seemed normal, fine to him and that I was probably unused to feeling that way- that I was not "flat" at all. The drug had in fact numbed me to the point that I could not feel ANY emotion, could not motivate myself to perform basic functions for the kids, could not orgasm, could not remember basic words, could not feel deep tissue masseurs' elbows in my… back when i would usually hit the roof. I had gone in asking about Streterra. He pushed me out the door with Pristiq.He told me it was an "off label drug used to treat adhd and functioned the same way as streterra. He could not have been more incorrect. Maybe he was deliberately lying to me. Why would he? I presented as an articulate, high -functioning, open- minded patient. What other doctors and I have since determined is that he was letting the drugs decide the diagnosis. He didn't want to hear much detail from me, he wanted to throw stuff at the problems and see what "stuck"It became very obvious that the side effects of the drug far outweighed the one "benefit" of taking them ( my worry had gone), but for some reason he wanted me to remain on them. He answered my apparently very valid questions about dosage incorrectly, gave me incorrect information about weaning myself off them, did not return phone calls at critical points , made me wait 50 minutes for our last appointment after calling to say he was running 5-8 minutes late and upon hearing i had to leave and reschedule , he turns up and insists i stay for a few minutes to talk when there was nothing pressing to discuss. As a result of his extreme lateness, i missed my lunch break and was late for a really important meeting. The irony of a man who is supposed to be an expert in treating ADHD being the direct impediment to his patients ability to keep their sugar levels stable and manage their time effectively does not escape me. The man was nothing short of a bully; arrogant, disrespectful and most disturbingly for me and my health, wrong. I have nothing to gain by bad mouthing someone. It doesn't make me feel good to do it. Even though my instincts told me he was wrong about a lot of things, I acquiesced because I wanted to be " a good patient" and because I wanted to put my trust in someone who was supposed to know better; maybe I as the patient was in denial about aspects of myself/ life and could be an impediment to my own progress... so let's leave it to the "expert". His methods and choices were beyond unorthodox, inappropriate and unprofessional. Because I am bright enough to read , research, ask the right questions etc, because I lead a healthy lifestyle and am very high functioning and self aware, I was able to determine that this man uses inappropriate methods and rather than benefitting my mental wellbeing was a direct impediment to it. I'll even admit that sometimes I have a problem with authority. Turns out a life-preserving one. I have never felt compelled to write a review on a site like this and share all this detail with complete strangers about anything. I don't want to ruin this man's career. I just want people to think very hard about with whom they will entrust their well being.

I went to see Dr Barkopoulos about 7 times over several months and EVERY single time, his office called to reschedule, sometimes up to 3 times. The last time the office called to reschedule me AGAIN, I said that the next time they did it they would have to give me 48 hours notice, as I am required to give them. When I did eventually get in to see him, I would have to wait half an hour or more because he was behind schedule. I understand that emergencies happen, however, I do not believe that every single time I saw him over several months that an emergency occurred. Rather, I think that he and his staff are not able to properly manage his schedule. I talked to him about it and he said that he is often late or unavailable because he is a single dad and is busy doing speaking engagements! The last time I went to see him, I told him that I had a very bad reaction to the medication he prescribed (a reaction where the drug maker says you must stop taking it immediately) and asked what else… we could try. He said that looking over my history that he didn't know what to give me and that I would be better off seeing someone else! I was absolutely shocked. He had only given me ONE medication, and one that was being prescribed for an off label use, so we weren't even sure if it was going to work. He left me with no medication left and refused to prescribe anything else for me. I tried to get an immediate appt with someone else for an rx but couldn't get in anywhere right away and had to go to the emergency room because he left me with no medication. Very poor office management and irresponsible treatment.

Not only was my first appt. canceled on me twice right before I was supposed to see him, but when I finally did get to see him I had to wait 25 minutes cutting my session that I paid full price for in half. He kept walking in and out of the room and clearly wasn't paying attention since I had to keep repeating myself and correcting him. On top of that, he wouldn't prescribe me the meds I had been on for 2 years in a row that worked for me. I had to find a new psychiatrist because my old one retired. Apparently he felt he knew more than my old one and I was on the wrong meds despite that they helped me for 2 years. He was unprofessional on every front....he even dressed unprofessionally. So sad that the demand for psychiatrists is so high that people actually put their lives in his hands. Worst doctor I have ever been to.

Very patient, caring, listens and remains calm, which kept me calm! It's a hard thing sometimes going to a Psychiatrist, I think, but he made it so easy to deal with. His staff is great and so helpful. They remained friendly and helpful with trying to get my prescription filled even though we were dealing with a pharmacy that was horrible!

I went to him for meds, he never remembered me, and the wait was once up to 2 hours. He won't give refills for zoloft and cytomel (these are not narcotics, or sedatives) --he claims this is because the pharmacy will make an error. And that would not have been a problem - but the refill request was never faxed back to pharmacy in a timely manner, -- every month it would take me 7 or 8 phone calls to get him to contact the pharmacy and days of waiting. So I became ill from not taking medication (because I couldn't get it), -- and he didn't seem to care, and this happened every month, like clockwork. Very frustrating! Seeing him was giving me more anxiety than my problems. The entire session I would plead with him to please straighten this out, and each time he would claim that I never told him about this issue before, Oy Vey. Finally went to a different doctor who gladly writes me refills. I come from a family of psychiatrists, and they never heard of one not prescribing refills for… these meds. He also is not someone to go to for talk therapy, he doesn't listen or remember!!!