Series: Part 1 Of 3

DR. TALLEY PRO AND CON, A SPECIAL REPORT

The story of Grover Dr. Joseph Talley has made national headlines. He
currently is being investigated by the N.C. Medical Board and the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

To help readers understand the different perpsectives on Dr. Talley, we are
starting a three-day series on those who have been affected by his practice
- - three people who feel he has helped and three who feel he has hurt them.

PRO

SHELBY - For 20 years, Richard Wilcox trusted Dr. Joseph Talley of Grover
with his life.

A cross-country truck driver, Wilcox depended on medicines the
controversial family doctor prescribed for him to stay functional while
handling his big rig on runs to California and back, as well as the rest of
his day-to-day activities.

Concerned when charges of misprescribing narcotics and other allegations
came out about Talley, the man with more than one million safe-driving
miles to his credit found fighting words when one doctor described Talley
as "narrow in his thinking" and "authoritative."

Dr. Philip Day, who operates the only other clinic in Grover, said in an
earlier interview his colleague's methods are extreme and that Talley makes
it easy for patients to get narcotics.

Wilcox, 55, consulted Talley from 1977 to 1997, he said, leaving only
because of changes in his insurance coverage.

"He's not with a lot of plans," Wilcox said, "and I couldn't afford it any
more, but I was a patient 20 years and I felt I had to say something."

Doctors who criticize Talley, he said, "are some of the same ones who sent
patients to him for pain medications they were afraid to prescribe."

"What (Day) said about Talley not considering alternative methods and
having tunnel vision - not true.

"He explained everything, went into detail, talked about options, and
worked until we got the medicines right for me," Wilcox said.

More than 25 years ago, Wilcox knew, he said, that on the job he was "not
the greatest employee in the world."

"Then, when I was off, I'd get a few cases of beer, go home, get in bed and
that's where I'd stay - drinking and crying.

"My wife - then my girlfriend - had been seeing (Talley) and she knew I had
a problem," he said. "I was sitting around at home crying, little things
would bother me, and I always had a feeling of worthlessness. This had been
going on since the late '60s, early '70s."

When he saw Talley, the diagnosis was depression.

Wilcox attributes his condition to a combination of experiences in his
childhood and later serving in the military.

At first, he didn't understand the diagnosis of depression, but Talley gave
him written explanations to take home, he said.

"We went through a number of different medicines, such as MAO inhibitors,
which you can't eat certain food with," he said. "It takes a while to get
in your system and be effective."

Eventually, his treatment settled on Valium, Prozac and - to Wilcox'
surprise - Ritalin.

"I didn't realize until the 1980s that I had attention deficit disorder. I
just thought I was a smartass in school, and dumb. I can't learn reading
from a book - I always have to have 'hands on.'"

He still takes Ritalin and said, "I'm very happy with it."

Wilcox left Talley's care in 1997, he said, but his current doctors and
counselors "basically keep me on the same medicines.

"I've had some changes in the anti-depressants from time to time over the
years."

Wilcox said he disagrees strongly with Dr. Day's assessment that Talley
practices with blinders on.

"It made me mad reading those comments," he said, "Because (Talley) never
once that I know of prescribed medicine for me that he didn't require me to
go through tests to find out the level of medicine in my body.

"Whenever he put me on any kind of medication, he would question me about it."

Wilcox also denies that Talley is an easy touch for controlled medicines.

"One time," he recalled, "I was taking Valium for depression, and I heard
about Xanax when it was new. I asked for it because I heard it was
stronger, but he said no."

At another time, he said, "I had hurt my back and he had me on some pain
medication - Tylenol that had a little codeine in it. I asked for something
stronger and Talley said no. He said it was not a chronic pain, that the
pain would lessen with time and I could do with what I had."

At no time did Wilcox feel he could dictate what kind of medicines Talley
would prescribe for him, he said.

If Talley had a fault, he said, it was taking too much time with patients.

"He was very comfortable to talk to, not like some doctors who are very
aloof. His nurses would get mad because of the time he took," Wilcox said.
"If there's anything to fault him with, he stretched himself too thin - he
really cared.

"A lot of doctors make you feel like you're intruding on their time," he
said. "Dr. Talley didn't. If he felt there was a need to talk to somebody,
to listen to somebody, he did it."

Wilcox said he thinks some patients, such as a friend of his, who complain
about Talley are not being completely honest.

"I have a friend who is also a former Talley patient who complains that
Talley's treatment did not help," he said. "However, most of the medicines
Talley uses are not to be taken with alcohol, something this person did not
follow.

"I'm not saying Dr. Talley may not have done some things wrong, but I'm not
going to judge him," Wilcox said. "He just did a whole lot for me and I
hate to see him put down."

CON

GILKEY - Donna Plank said that after her daughter was born in 1996, she
didn't feel right.

"I didn't really know what it was. I was just crying all the time."

She did not recognize the symptoms of post-partum depression, she said,
because they came several months after the birth.

A co-worker at her Cone Mills textile job recommended "this wonderful
doctor," Dr. Talley, she said.

"I contacted him and right away was put on a six-month waiting list," she
said. "That should have been a red alert. Anybody suffering with depression
doesn't need to wait six months."

However, she was called to come in about a month later, she said.

"From the get-go, he put me on Xanax, and from the get-go, he made it sound
like it was everybody's fault - my mama, my dad, my now-ex-husband's - that
I was depressed."

Donna took the medicine, she said, "just like he told me, four long, white
pills a day - they're the 2 milligram Xanax."

When she developed headaches, Talley prescribed Lortab (hydrocodone), she said.

"Taking these medicines - I didn't realize at the time - I was so sedated I
could barely take care of my two kids."

By October 1996, she said, "I couldn't take it. I knew something was wrong
and thought I was going crazy. I called Charter Pines (a mental health
facility in Charlotte), and I committed myself."

Donna stayed more than a week, she said, while the doctor there tried to
lower her dosage of Xanax.

"But my body craved it," she said.

When she told Talley, she said, "He didn't like it. He said he didn't
believe in that kind of therapy."

By the end of the year, he refused to see her again, she said.

"The last Xanax I had was in January 1997," she recalls, after she woke up
one morning and found an unfamiliar T-shirt in her room.

"My son said, 'Mama, you bought it.' He even told me when and where we
bought it.

"I realized for the first time that Christmas had come and gone, my son's
birthday on Dec. 29 - I had bought toys and stuff - I didn't remember any
of it."

Suddenly it hit her, she said.

"My children could have been in danger. I just sat down and cried. I think
that's the point that I realized that I was addicted to Xanax."

Donna said she strongly disagrees with Talley's explanations of addiction
versus chemical dependency.

"They're one and the same. I've been there," she said.

Donna continued to work, she said, but sometimes missed days and had to
take time off for her stay at Charter Pines.

Twice, she caught her hand in the weaving loom she ran.

"They gave me a drug test and it showed the Xanax, but I had a legal
prescription so they couldn't do anything," she said.

When she battled double pneumonia, she said, "Doctors said I had a
depressed immune system brought on by all the medicine I was taking."

Donna said she also regrets the trauma to her family caused by the drugs'
effect on her.

"Mom had to pick up the slack with my kids - and my husband, too.

"And the Xanax made me mean. I would argue with anybody. I didn't care what
I said, things totally out of character for me."

Donna described herself as "easygoing, good-hearted, compassionate - I
wouldn't hurt anybody for the world - but on Xanax, all I wanted to do was
argue and fight."

Now 36, Donna continues with therapy and takes medication for depression
still, but non-narcotics, she said.

"I don't hate Dr. Talley, but I do blame him for writing prescriptions so
freely and such high dosage.

"I have so many emotions concerning this man," she said. "I went through
hell because of the high dosages of narcotics he prescribed to me. I can't
see how a doctor could write out prescriptions like he did and not realize
the harm he's inflicted on people.

"Personally I applaud the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) for
suspending his narcotic license."

She concluded, "I know a lot of people will attack me for this, but I feel
like if I can save one person, open one person's eyes, it's worth it."