Psychiatry
CAPS provides psychiatric evaluations for students who are interested in exploring, starting or continuing mental health medications.
Concerns that are commonly addressed include, but are not limited to:
- Excessive anxiety
- Attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)*
- Bipolar and depressive disorders
- Phobias
- Hallucinations
- Disordered eating and eating disorders
*Students must have documentation in order to receive a stimulant prescription from CAPS. Learn more about our ADHD Documentation & Review Policy.
In order to meet with a psychiatrist, you must schedule a screening appointment.
Appointment information
Cancellation Policy:
- Appointments must be canceled at least 24 hours in advance by calling CAPS at 303-492-2277.
- All late cancellations or missed appointments will be charged $10 regardless of the type of appointment. This includes individual therapy, medication evaluations, follow ups, brief therapy and group therapy.
- Late cancellations or missed appointments within the free visits will also be charged the $10 fee, but will not result in a loss of one of the visits.
- Appointments can also be cancelled online in MyCUHealth up to 24 hours in advance.
Except when required by law or in situations where there is a safety concern, counseling records cannot be accessed by faculty, staff or family members without written consent. For continuity of care purposes, CAPS providers may share information with other treatment providers, both medical and mental health. This includes both medical providers at CU Boulder as well as outside providers.
In order to provide effective and up-to-date services, we may consult other colleagues within CAPS about our work with students. Otherwise, information revealed in counseling, even the information that you have made an appointment, is not disclosed to others unless you provide written authorization for that information to be released.
The exceptions to this practice are:
- When a therapist believes you present an imminent danger to yourself or others
- When the life or safety of a readily identifiable third person is endangered
- When a counselor believes that a child or vulnerable adult is being subjected to abuse, neglect or exploitation
- When disclosure is made necessary by legal proceedings
- When a client becomes gravely disabled
- If you are a minor (under the age of 18)
Students are encouraged to address any questions or concerns about this important issue with their drop-in counselor or assigned therapist.
To ensure your privacy and confidentiality, you can communicate directly and securely by phone (303-492-2277) or through MyCUHealth. Secure messaging is for non-urgent concerns only.
Note: Email is not a secure method of communication so we will not use this as a way to discuss your health concerns.
To request a refill from a CAPS provider prescription please complete CAPS Refill Request form in the "Forms" section on MyCUHealth.
Frequently Asked Questions
During this evaluation the psychiatric provider will gather information, determine diagnosis(es) (if any), and formulate a treatment plan. If you have a diagnosis or symptoms that may respond well to medication, they will discuss it with you.
You may or may not be offered medication on your first visit. Sometimes it takes more than one visit to clarify diagnosis(es).
You are certainly not obliged to take medicine if you don’t want to, and it is completely reasonable if you wish to do additional research before starting anything.
If the psychiatric provider believes a trial of medication is warranted, they will explain why and answer any questions you may have.
No. You and your provider will determine how long you should stay on medication. Often proper treatment entails taking medicine on a daily basis.
Some disorders are episodic and you may stay on medicine during the course of the illness and then can discontinue. Other times an illness may be chronic and you may want to stay on medication longer to prevent relapse or recurrent episodes.
Sometimes students will take medication on an as-needed basis (only in the midst of a panic attack, for instance). This will always be decided between you and your provider.
No. Your personal health information is protected, which means nothing can be released without your written permission.
If you use your parent's health insurance, they may receive an estimation of benefits (EOB) or bills related to your care. However, you can decide whether you authorize billing through your health insurance plan.
Using someone else's medicine could actually be dangerous. It's important to come in for an evaluation where a prescriber can determine if medication is indicated and can come up with a personalized plan for you.
Students must have documentation in order to receive a stimulant prescription for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) from Counseling and Psychiatric Services.
Please review our ADHD Documentation & Review Policy for information about documentation requirements.
You can also visit our ADHD Information page for more general information.
Yes! There are a multitude of medications that are used for most of the things we treat. If you didn't feel good because of a side effect, options include switching to a different medication, changing the time of day or way that you take the medication (ie. splitting the dose, taking it in the evening, switching to an extended release pill, etc.), or adding on something to treat the side effect.
It is possible that after the prescriber does a detailed examination there could be a different diagnosis that would warrant a different class of medications. In general, if you had a bad reaction to something in the past, the prescriber will likely recommend something different.
Yes, you do have an option to see a different prescriber. Just let the prescriber or the front desk know to initiate the process.
Alcohol and cannabis are psychoactive substances, which means they have an effect of their own on your brain and can effect things like your mood and behavior. Sometimes students use alcohol or drugs as a way to “self-medicate,” but this can be problematic as the effects of long-term use or withdrawal can be very different than the effects of using in the moment.
The psychiatric provider will ask you about substance use and make recommendations regarding your use of alcohol or other drugs. For example, if you have depression and are prescribed an antidepressant, the prescriber will recommend avoiding or minimizing your use of alcohol because alcohol is a depressant and works at cross purposes with your antidepressant medication.
Also, sometimes people can respond differently to alcohol when they are on medication. For example, they can be more sensitive to the effects of alcohol, l so you would want to be mindful of that and use less. There are some medicines that you absolutely should not combine with alcohol as the combination can cause respiratory depression (i.e. you could stop breathing and die) or can increase your risk of seizures. The psychiatric provider will go through all of this with you.
No, this can be dangerous. It is also against the law. You may think you are helping them because your medication helps you, but it could cause them serious or even life-threatening problems.
For instance, stimulants can be helpful for ADHD symptoms, but there have been cases of sudden cardiac death when used by people with pre-existing heart conditions, and your roommate might not even know they have something like that. The best course is for your roommate to be evaluated and given their own prescription if it is appropriate.
This is a good thing to talk with your provider about. It usually helps to make taking medicine a part of your routine by linking it to something you already do every day, for example brushing your teeth every morning.
There may also be options that you can take less frequently (weekly or even monthly) or alternative options to pills (ie patches or injectables). A psychiatric provider can review all of your options with you.
Functional MRI testing has shown clear physiologic changes in patients suffering from psychiatric illness. In other words, things like major depressive disorder, panic attacks or bipolar disorder are not the result of character weakness; they are active physiological disorders.
The purpose of medication is to restore you back to baseline as soon as possible. It is true that some people recover from a mood episode without treatment, but the improvement is usually not as robust and long lasting. There is also evidence that going through an untreated mood episode leaves you at higher risk for both more frequent and more intense mood episodes in the future.
The goal of treatment is to form a partnership, where your psychiatric provider gives their best recommendations as to what is likely to help and you let them know how you are responding and if there are any concerns.
Psychiatric medication can often cause short term side effects, and so your prescriber may try to encourage you to stick with something that is causing issues at the start. However, if the medication is causing problems that aren't going away, or are unable to be tolerated even short term, we will work with you to find something that is better for you.
If you are new to psychiatric medication, do not have any current prescriptions, and wish to learn more about how psychiatry can help, please join us at Let's Talk Psychiatry.