Julie E. Lafferty's Online Review Report Card

Terrible experience with her. Prescribed multiple meds for diagnosis I do not have. Blamed me for not improving. Shamed me for calling into the office when I was having issues.

Dr. Lafferty is the only psychiatrist I’ve ever been to and although I got lucky with my first prescription I tried with her, she is a very cold person, and even with only trying one psychiatrist, I knew I had to switch. Every time I had an appointment with her, I dreaded the time I had to spend there and the hours leading up to it. Not only is she never on time with her appointments, every time I went in to see her, I ended up having to wait a minimum of an hour and a half for my scheduled appointment. I actually spoke to another patient in the waiting room with me who said she switched from Dr. Lafferty to a different doctor because of how long she had to wait during each visit. Now, onto the actual meeting time... she spends a maximum of 10 minutes with each patient which makes no sense to me since she is so late all the time with every person she brings in? When I wanted to address some of the issues I was having with my medication, she flat out said “no we aren’t going to talk about that”. Appalled, I told her I wanted to talk about it and she actually yelled at me. First of all.... what? This is not appropriate behavior from a doctor at all. Second of all, she made me so uncomfortable and dismissed that each time I had to go back to her to my prescription renewed, I was scared to tell her if anything about the medication was bothering me or if I had any emotional/cognitive changes at all. As a patient of any doctor, this frightens me and shouldn’t be taken lightly. She is someone who I do not trust in the slightest to hold my health in the palm of her hand. Finally, she has the audacity to take personal phone calls on her cell phone during our very limited-time appointments. Never have I met such a horrible doctor with absolutely no regard for any of her patients. I don’t understand why anyone would write a single good review for her and I almost never write reviews, but found it necessary to warn others. If you do absolutely anything today, I hope it’s that you listen to the bad reviews on here because this doctor is not worth your valuable time in trying to heal your mental health. Ironically, this doctor’s attitude, unprofessionalism and unwillingness to listen to her patients makes me question her motives for being in this industry all together. Choose elsewhere for your own good. Best of luck.

Dr. Lafferty is an excellent doctor she’s very intelligent and is very caring. She has helped my wife in very difficult times and has done everything in her power to help her, I will be forever grateful. To this day in my wife has stopped seeing her several years ago she still will see me at the drop of a hat with no problems.

Dr. Lafferty often veers off into political speeches with me because she knows that's an interest of mine, but that's not why I'm there. She only sees me for ten minutes, and I want to talk about my medications and how they affect me. These are conversations I've never had with any other psychiatrist. ODD.

I recently saw her after a few years, I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. We had to start like I was a new patient since had been so long. She was taking down information and asking questions, when I said I wanted to talk about the cancer diagnosis, she said we weren’t going to talk about. She’s very loud and I worried that other people could hear her talking to me. Twice she burst out with inappropriate laughter. I will never go back

Dr Lafferty is very patient and listens to my issues. She answers all my questions.

Three other patients were also scheduled for our appointment time, but that's not unusual for psychiatrists who take insurance. What was unusual was the level of aggression, scorn, and unprofessional behavior we experienced. She was not interested in my partner's long-time psychologist's diagnosis for him; she refused our request to sign a release so they could consult. Instead she asked rapid-fire DSM questions designed to support a different diagnosis (when my partner tried to talk about symptoms not related to her questions she talked over him). She flat out ridiculed my partner for the meds he is taking and told him to stop taking them, without asking why they had been prescribed. She repeatedly answered her cell phone during our intake. She prescribed a drug neither of us had ever heard of, and when I asked her what symptoms the drug would address, she gave me an intense, neurotransmitter-based outline of its mechanics in the brain; I asked her again what symptoms the drug was for and she literally threw her hands in the air and yelled "well, what do you expect me to do?!" It was incredible; honestly if I hadn't been there to see it I wouldn't have believed a practicioner would actually treat a patient like that. We asked about the drug's cost, she looked at us like we'd asked a ridiculous question and said she didn't know, though she was able to provide us with a coupon for a free month. But the drug, which is not recommended for my partner's diagnosis, costs $500 a month with our insurance, so the visit was worse than wasted. Finding a psychiatrist is difficult, but I'd rather pay a good doctor cash than get treated like this.

She gave me medications for bipolar when I have never been bipolar. I have only suffered from depression. Refused me anti-anxiety medication when a new antidepressant medication she prescribed caused me 24/7 severe extreme anxiety (over the top). Complained that I called because I was not doing well. Final blow came when she listed all the things she tried and basically gave me no hope, leaving me to feel it was my fault. I never returned after that. I am seeing a new Dr. And after trying a Rx I had never been on before, I am excited to be feeling normal again.

Three people were scheduled for the same time slot. Dr. Lafferty was astonishingly aggressive, rude, and cruel. My partner has been under the care of a psychologist for a long while; she refused to talk to him and ignored his diagnosis. She ridiculed my partner's meds and told him to stop taking them, didn't ask why he took them. Asked rapid fire DSM checklist question, formulate a different dx, and prescribed meds not suggested for his actual dx. When we asked questions she yelled at us.

She's rude and very unprofessional. She also forgets what is going on with her patients. I went with a family member and during the appt, this dr actually answered a personal cell phone call. She couldn't remember what medicine she had her patient on or the diagnosis.