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About

Atlanta Psychiatrist Dr. Darvin Hege

Practice History

I opened a solo private practice in Atlanta for treating adults and adolescents for psychiatric and substance abuse problems immediately after completing my psychiatric residency at Emory University in 1978. I treated patients simultaneously in several private psychiatric hospitals and mental health units in general medical hospitals and in my outpatient office. I built a group practice with other mental health practitioners in the late ’80s and early ’90s based in my office beside Peachford Hospital. When managed-care came into the industry in the early ’90s and made group practice no longer feasible, I changed my practice back to a solo practice.

I retired from practice of psychiatry from 1997 until 2001 to try trading commodities for myself. It was a stimulating endeavor, but I gave it up after I improved to a break-even profit record after 4 years. I rebuilt my solo practice doing inpatient and outpatient psychiatry based out of my office beside Peachford Hospital. I stopped doing inpatient treatment 3 years ago and focus now on outpatient treatment only. I specialize in treating adult ADHD, anxiety, depression, outpatient bipolar disorder, and outpatient addiction. I evaluate patients for psychiatric medication management of their conditions and often refer patients for additional talk therapies like psychotherapy, CBT, and substance abuse counseling to a network of therapists in the community. I refer patients who need psychiatric hospitalization to my colleagues at Peachford Hospital. I refer new patients who may need inpatient care to outpatient psychiatric colleagues who do inpatient work as well. These patients are more likely to benefit from the continuity of their care if they have the same psychiatrist treating them inpatient and outpatient.

I am passionate about using the most advanced technology, new medicines, and refined diagnoses. I welcome the opportunity to help you. Every day I look forward to seeing who comes back getting better, and who will stretch my knowledge and experience because they aren’t getting better yet. I’ve seen so many difficult cases get better over the years that I never give up. And when these patients do get better, they are the most gratifying cases of all.

Biography

I grew up as the middle child of 6 children in a Mennonite home in rural Hagerstown, Maryland. I was educated through my MD degree in the Maryland University system. My parents were opposed to higher education because of the threat of my losing my Mennonite faith. The moral values they taught me are precious to me though I have shed the Mennonite practices. They removed me from school as soon as I turned 16 and I worked for my father for 4 years, training to become a journeyman bricklayer. I completed my high school through a correspondence course and obtained a GED. When I became financially independent at 20, I funded my way through college and medical school from earnings as a bricklayer in the summers. I obtained my union bricklayer’s card and worked in Manhattan building skyscrapers for a while. When I first went to New York applying for jobs, I walked onto the World Trade Center construction site. They didn’t need any more bricklayers that day in 1971 and I missed out on a historic contribution.

I struggled with almost overwhelming anxiety at times making the transition from the fundamentalist, uneducated, rural, church-centric world to the sophisticated, complicated, urban academic, scientific method, University and medical school world. I have been favored by the good fortune of meeting my wife of 38 years. We met on the locked wards of the psychiatric unit in Grady hospital in 1975 where she was a psychiatric nurse and I was an Emory psychiatric resident. We are very fortunate to have 4 healthy children, all independent and in their 20s.

If you have any questions for an Atlanta psychiatrist, contact my office today at 770-458-0007.



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