He's the best. I saw him last about 10 years ago, and worked with him for many years. He knows how to manage medications. He is a very skilled psychopharmacologist. He has a calm, pleasant and ever hopeful demeanor. I've worked with a lot of psychiatrists, and he's the top one. read more

Right after my partner died, I saw Dr Liss. He told me that I was bipolar and proceeded to prescribe me 15 or more different medications. Many of which I was told to take at the same time. I suffered memory loss and felt way more depressed than I had before my partner had died which was shocking. I told him all this, but he just gave me more drugs. I decided at one point that I wasn't bipolar. I thought to myself that I was just an energetic person who was experiencing deep grief and sadness. Little by little, I weaned myself off of all the drugs. I sought out grief therapy and went for a few years. Even though I was in deep sadness, I felt surprisingly better off all these medications. I felt like I had a real shot at sorting out my grief. It's been 16 years since my guest partner died and perhaps 15 since I saw this "doctor." Turns out I was right. I'm just a enthusiastic energetic person who was going through deep grief. My life is pretty great now. I live in a beautiful place, have a job I like, I even met a special someone and we've been together for 4-5 years. The so-called medication he had me on did a lot of damage. I had to learn how to read as fast as I could before, I played a lot of memory games to get my memory back, and more importantly, I sought grief counseling to actively work on what was really troubling me. This quack of a doctor did a lot of damage and didn't listen to me during a very vulnerable time in my life. The careless and apathetic way he treated me was one of the more traumatizing things that happened to me after my first partner died. He never listened to me, he never took my complaints about the medication seriously, and he kept telling me I was this absolutely hopeless case while shoving more medications down my throat that made my life worse. Most importantly, he absolutely misdiagnosed me. It was absolutely degrading and dehumanizing. Please avoid Liss. read more

Let me tell you why Dr. Dorson Liss is my personal hero. I suffer from bipolar disorder, and have for the past 10 years. I have seen several doctors in the past with mixed results. The most recent doctor completely misdiagnosed me as being a "slow metabolizer", thus giving me a less-than-legitimate dosage. After a couple of "out-of-control" manic episodes, I decided to change doctors, and ultimately chose Dr. Liss. He performed an initial screening that was more comprehensive than any I'd had before. He then reviewed the medications I'd been given by my previous doctor, and found that some where not only wrong, but dangerous for a bipolar patient, and asked that I hand them over immediately. He also challenged my "slow metabolizer" diagnosis, and asked that I get a blood test. The blood test ultimately proved that my metabolism was fine. Dr. Liss then drastically changed my medication, keeping me on only 1 of the 5 meds I was taking, and adding 1 more for a total of 2. Legitimate dosages for both meds were given. The results have been an amazing success. My friends, family, and coworkers have noticed a change, in that I am more amicable, pleasant, and emotionally consistent. I really can't believe that I've found inner peace after so long. Dr. Liss also does not rest easy when things are going well, he performs a thorough analysis with you during each appointment. HIGHLY RECOMMEDED read more

Outstanding level of care. After being poorly managed for 25 years and told I was beyond normal care, Dr. Liss promised that he could fix the symptoms of my treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. On the first visit. Cheesy, and I didn't believe a word of it. But he did exactly what he promised. After the most common technique, increasing the dose of one medication until a result was obtained, failed, he was the first doctor in all my mental healthcare history to attempt a cocktail of different drugs to tackle different symptoms. All the drugs he chose were common ones that might be given to anyone, but in the combinations he chose they performed better than anything I'd tried before. I have been increasingly stable now for three years and in all that time, though I have had my highs and lows and embarrassing sillies, I can honestly say that I have had not one single episode of depression since my current drug regime was established. Dr. Liss does not waste time, his or mine. He is not a therapist and does not attempt psychotherapy, he sticks to what he does well, which is prescribing and monitoring medications. If you are looking for a patient and sympathetic ear, you really need to find a counselor; Dr. Liss is not unsympathetic, he just knows what he does best and doesn't go into other areas. Ultimately you'll find this is better for you than having a psychiatrist and a counselor dishing out different opinions simultaneously. I gather Dr. Liss has been around a while. Actually, 'been around forever' was one other doctor's comment, and 'I thought he'd retired' was another. You get the point. You are dealing with a very experienced doctor here, and it shows. Unfortunately as with most other psychiatrists, Dr. Liss only accepts private insurance plans or cash. It would be good to think that these kinds of skills were available to the less advantaged. But that doesn't detract from the five stars I have to give. Just mentally deduct one star for the entire US health system if you wish. read more

When the name Dr Liss comes to my mind, I think five words "He is hungry for money", when the name Mary Lou (his secretary) comes to my mind, I think ten words "She is gonna take you more money, than you owe ". My experience with this doctor, was like this. If you stayed more than 10 minutes in his office, that was over time. His style was, "do not disturb me, until I finish asking the questions, that I have for you" (about 15) and I guess these questions apply to everybody. And by the time he marks the "yes" or "no", the time is up. And then he changes prescriptions according to your complaints. I was explaining to him, the side effects I was getting. Like for example, this medicine makes me like a zombie. Eventually he put me on the Wellbutrin medication and according to him, it was mild and I could handle it. Yes for sure, I handled it, for six or seven weeks until I ended up in the ICU at El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos with Atrial Fibrillation. My heart could not tolerate those pills anymore and after that, all hell broke loose, with all kinds of medical problems, for the rest of my life. But the secret of his financial success was and is, that the dosage of the pills that he will prescribe to you, will last until the next appointment. In that way you can not afford to skip any appointment, because you will end up without pills. After a few weeks, when I got better and I went back to complain about the Wellbutrin pills, which sent me to Emergency,and were too dangerous, he started browsing huge books and then he spent another 10 minutes on line and eventually, he uttered "Do not take them anymore" I told him that it is kind of late, because the damage is already done. During that time he had fallen and had broken his neck, he was still coming to his office with small metal polls horizontally and vertically around his head and he was in his early 70's then. He knows how to milk the cow, even if he is sick and not capable of offering any decent service. By the way, if he is in a good mood, he may let you ask him, one or two questions. Now it is time for the secretary Mary Lou, who knows how to collect cash or checks, but not payments through credit cards because this method is, too high tech for her office. One day she called me to let me know that Dr Liss is sick and to postpone my Thursday's appointment for the next week. I said no problem I'm coming next week. A few weeks later, she called me again to tell me, that I owe a co-payment from that Thursday, because I did not show up for my appointment. When I complained that she was the one that canceled the appointment she said that I supposed to have called, three days before to cancel it. I did not want to argue, so I paid my co-payment for an appointment that Dr Liss was sick. Mary Lou has not discovered yet words like "bad karma". I did not expect the secretary to be genius, but it would not hurt, to be ethical. read more

My first impression was that this guy is a pill pusher and that he's just in it for the money. It turns out...I was right. This guy and his staff are awful. He 'requires' his new patients to come one a week. All of them are super short visits, just to 'check in'. I racked up about 15 appointments with him. A gigantic waste of my time and money. He spent less than 15 minutes deciding on my diagnosis and it was totally wrong. He wanted me to take way more medication than I need. One day, I received a call from the assistant telling me that my (same day) appointment was cancelled because the doctor was sick. She rescheduled it for three days later. I called in the next day and said that the new time wasn't going to work. He charged me $50 for not cancelling three days prior to the appointment time! Seriously? That was the last time that I scheduled with him. It's now 8 months later. They have just sent me to collections. My insurance company never received a claim from his office! I'm in the middle of working it out...but, come on! Get it together! Don't waste your time. This guy is a joke. Go see a real doctor. read more

Is weird with his billing, as someone else mentioned. These older docs are set in there ways and hate insurance companies and will do what they can to avoid them. He'll charge you $250 for first visit, then you have to file a claim with the insurance company to get reimbursed. He does nothing more than pharmaceutical management from my experience, but that's pretty par for the course. I would not dissuade you from being a patient, but as always, you are the customer, so if there's not a good fit, go elsewhere. read more

I am honestly pretty surprised that he is getting such good reviews. He diagnosed me with Bipolar Disorder and had me on a total of 700mg of medication total that only increased my mood swings and made me a total zombie. When I switched to Dr. Thomas Tarshis, he was shocked that Dr. Liss had me on an anti-psychotic drug that is typically only used for elderly senile patients and has the effect of slowing down and affecting cognition in a negative way. This is the wrong medication for a university student such as myself to be on, considering that I need the brain power to get through school. It was only after I switched to Dr. Tarshis that I started to feel like myself again. I ended up having to take TWO YEARS off of school to recover from the after effects of the medications he had me on. During those two years, I had spend a night in the ER because I was having daily panic attacks and experiencing suicidal thoughts. I am never getting those two years of my life back. Plus, he was not open to opinions or discussion. I was to only answer the questions that he asked me, and he was totally rude to my concerned parents when then joined me in the session. He only seems to care about getting the drugs out, and I did not get the feeling that he cares about his patients at all. His secretary is also very rude and gave serious attitude when I was trying to resolve things with my insurance. I am horrified at the idea of him continuing to practice. I really hope no one has to go through what I had to go through. read more

Dr. Liss is a life saver. It's as simple as that. I've had so many doctors not know what to do with me and my anxiety/depression. Dr. liss started with a blank slate, took me off the 5 medications i was on and started over with two, adjusting the dosage as we went along. 2 and a Half years now seeing him, and I've never felt so normal. read more

This guy is a disgrace to his profession. He should be called "Dollars Liss." He charges for EVERYTHING. I've never met anyone like this. The experience with him was horrible. He would prescribe me medicine and never tell me the side effects. One medicine caused me to have severe side effects. I lost my job and medical insurance. He didn't care. He NEVER offered to help me with my job, i.e. asking for accommodations or medical leave. He ONLY cared that I paid for the office visit. He NEVER took any responsibility for giving me that drug or not telling me the side effects. You also have to be careful. I called way in advance to cancel an appointment. His office charged me for a "No Show." Bottom line is this guy is in it for the money. When he sees a client - he sees Dollar Signs. read more

I have always had extreme ups and downs since I was a child but did not realize anything was "medically" wrong until a few years ago. My primary Dr gave me anti-depressants which did not fix the problem since I was not depressed. I took my mom with me to my initial appt with Dr Liss so she can give him some history on me growing up. He diagnosed me as bipolar and promised he would help me. I did not know it, but 2-1/2 years ago my husband was at his wits end thinking he could not live with this woman anymore. About that same time, in the midst of all our problems, I realized something was wrong with me, not us so I went to Dr Liss. It was a little bumpy trying different meds, but as long as I was honest with him and myself about the side effects he always said he would find the right combination/dose to help me. Dr. Liss has turned my life around and honestly he has saved my marriage and I am so grateful for that. I cannot thank him enough for making me a more pleasant person to be around and changing my life. read more

I was 19 years old when I first saw Dr. Liss,.He was in NYC then, and came highly recommended by the NYC school board. I was a very uncooperative patient as a teenager, but he never gave up, and, had I initially followed his advice, I would not be where I am today. I am an RN. I have seen many psychiatrists sadly. But it took an endocrinologist to tell me 20 years later, what Dr. Liss had suspected all along. I also eventually moved to CA. When I did, I immediately tracked him down. Willing to drive the nearly 3 hr trip, just to see him. The day I had the appointment, enroute we had a terrible car accident and my husband was severely injured. Needless to say we moved back to the East Coast the following year where my husband could be near his family. To this day I wish I could see Dr. Liss. Being in the medical profession, I can say without any hesitation that he is one of the most patient, caring and compassionate doctors I have ever met. He listens intently, he advises knowledgably, and he prescribes responsibly. I don't think you can ask any more. If you want therapy, go to a psychologist, because that is all, they can do. Jayne Hartley-Giansante RN read more

Well, let me say I would have liked to write this after seeing the doctor but it seems the office manager Mary Lou is the "screener" for patients who are "good enough" to see Dr. Liss. Called to make an appointment for my husband. He would have been a new patient. Was given an appointment for the next week IF Dr. Liss was a provider on our insurance. Hate to tell you this Mary Lou but YES, Dr. Liss is a provider. Called my insurance, verified by Dr. Liss's tax ID, etc. Mary Lou said well, he doesn't want to be and besides he doesn't take your husband's secondary insurance Medicare either. And your point is what? You take the primary insurance. Then she proceeds to tell me well, he is booked and has a waiting list. Really, cause I was given an appointment for next week. Oh that was a mistake made by the new girl she says. Seriously?? Too bad cause I heard Dr. Liss is the best with med management. Either Mary Lou is full of BULL! or Dr. Liss cares more about your pocketbook then your mental health. Really Dr. Liss, continuity of patient care should come first. Time for some customer service training for Mary Lou. read more