Posted by JohnL on April 2, 2000, at 4:28:26
In reply to Vitality Health Products (feral.com) , posted by Diane on April 1, 2000, at 13:30:36
Even though it's usually a bad idea, I have to admit I can emphathize with your self medication tendencies. I'm equally guilty of doing the same thing at times. I don't endorse it or recommend it. Yet out of frustration with naive pdocs I've found myself self-experimenting several times. I do so cautiously though, always researching fully to understand side effects, risks, dangers, interactions, etc. And I always dip my toes in the water so to speak, with very low doses at first, before diving in. I have found that the techniques of quite a few pdocs are no better than flipping a coin or throwing darts. I can do that just as well. But the important factor is the safety factor. Must always understand completely everything possible about the med before actually putting it in my mouth.
Even though a selection of meds is available mailorder, the selection is limited. Most overseas pharmacies do require a prescription. Some will accept it faxed while some demand the original hard copy in the mail. The ones that do not require a prescription can only supply a limited number of meds, like the nootropics, Prozac, Reboxetine, and Zoloft. There are several sites that can supply things like Viagra, Meridia, Xenical. Meridia is probably similar to Effexor except with more anorexic action. You pay a fee for a written online consultation, and then the fee for the med itself. Prices are usually considerably higher than what you would pay at your local pharmacy.
The limiting factor in which of the many drugs you want to look at is probably availability. You might have to whittle your list down to just Deprenyl, Meridia and Adrafinil, which aren't as hard to get. But again, the safety factor. Deprenyl has the potential to kill you or cause a stroke if the wrong foods are eaten while taking it. It isn't definite, but it is a risk to be aware of and respect. Adrafinil requires periodic blood testing to check liver function. Meridia I think is relatively free of any major risks, unless combining it with another antidepressant. Any one of these might get you feeling well so that all the others can be scratched off the list anyway. The only real way to try everything you want is to have someone write prescriptions for you. In the absence of doing that, your selections will be limited. So if you insist on continuing with self-medication, concentrate your efforts on the meds you can get easily. Without a prescription, forget the rest. They're out of reach without your doctor's endorsement.
And a final word of buprenorphine. Though it appears you got stiffed for the money spent, you might not be missing out on much. I saw a bar graph compiled by a psychiatrist that showed what types of drugs got his patients well in a sample of 250 patients during a year. The most common cure was a serotonin antidepressant. Smaller yet still significant numbers of patients were improved with antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, NE antidepressants, or thyroid. The smallest percentage of all was with the opioids like buprenorphine. Only a few people out of 250 actually improved with it.
poster:JohnL
thread:28647
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000401/msgs/28686.html