Posted by Ritch on August 7, 2002, at 0:56:03
In reply to Re: Tremendous strides with ondansetron, posted by ryan_s on August 6, 2002, at 18:52:20
> Thanks for everyones support; I truely appreciate it. As for your questions stan, I will be more than happy to answer them for you.
>
> After trying prozac, paxil, serzone, buspar, neurontin, depakote, celexa, lithium, adderall, klonopin, cytomel, synthroid, zyprexa, geodon, seroquel, tegrotal, effexor, remeron, and others that I have probably forgotten, I knew that there was something wrong with my brain that none of the above medications addressed. To tell you the truth it was very frustrating telling the pdoc that an SSRI, antipsychotic, anticonvulsant, or an amphetamine like adderall, were not getting to the heart of my problem and that same pdoc forcing different SSRI in my face tell me, "2/3's of patients that do not do well with one antidepressant will have a profound affect with another". Hogwash, I do not mean to be a cynic, but deep down inside I knew that depression was not the problem and not one pdoc agreed. Once I began to understand what was wrong with me, genetically predisposed alcoholism or early onset alcoholism, the puzzle began to fit into place. I researched as much as possible online and before my initial treatment with ondansetron, I tried acamprosate (a drug pending FDA trials for the treatment of alcoholism and has also been available in Europe for years) and it made me feel somewhat normal. A sense of normalcy in which no other medication listed in the opening sentence gave me before. I knew that I was onto something. After a month on acamprosate, the side effects were a little unbearable, so I wanted another option. This is where Ondansetron comes into this little autobiography. I ordered this med from overseas and yes it is extremely expensive. However if you buy the pills in packs of ten it is only 100 dollars, and you can take each one of the 4mg tablets and split them up as small as possible. It is very easy to split them since they are dissolvable on the tongue. Anyways to get to the heart of this story, I take .25mg twice daily and the only side effect is a little headache and that is it. Good luck with your quest for happiness.
>
> RyanRyan,
Thanks for the added info. Acamprosate is also an experimental treatment for bipolar disorder from what I understand. I do remember seeing a news story on TV about an Odansentron trial a while back. Perhaps the manufacturer can substantially cut prices if there are other potential "off-label" uses that could increase the volume and economy of scale besides just chemotherapy and general anesthetic induced vomiting and nausea?
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:115356
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020731/msgs/115505.html