Posted by Kingston on December 2, 2009, at 21:37:44
In reply to Re: Add anything to help with the EMSAM wait...., posted by Monica L on December 2, 2009, at 19:58:39
Monica,
Yeah...I believe your Prozac story. Are you bipolar? A lot of the initial success stories and books such as 'Listening to Prozac' were written about patients like us; people who rapidly responded to prozac within days, taking on superhuman tasks as if born again with the energy of ten men. Naturally, this is what psychiatrists trying to sell books are going to write about. You don't hear about these patients five years down the road. And all the Prozac hype and the books that came with was before people understood bipolar spectrum disorder: patients who showed no signs of bipolar beofre SSRI treatment would show all the symptoms shortly after. They don't know what to call this so they just call Bipolar Spectrum Disorder. Off SSRIs, i'm completely normal and entirely boring.I react almost instantly to all of the SSRIs. My favorite was Zoloft. I wrote a 500 page novel in under a month the first time I took Zoloft; a novel which clearly wasn't garbage b/c it's sitting in Barnes and Nobles right now. I wasn't delusional. Just energized and on task. Zoloft changed my life.
We both have what is called SSRI induced hypomania. Sounds to good to be true and it is. The hypomania that allowed me to write a novel turned sour after ten months solid before dumping down the SSRI sewer pipes and into the fire-breathing cesspits of hell.
I never had suicidal thoughts until I went on Zoloft. Jumping from one SSRI to the next, my brain was fried when I finally met up with Prozac. Prozac rejuvenated me though and sent me on another hypomanic surge and I polished off book number two in a week flat.
Two months later, I was standing on a chair in my garage with a rope wrapped around my neck. SSRIs nearly destroyed my life but i'll spare you the lengthy tale and trail of mass chaos that me and my SSRIs left behind.
As for Parnate, it won't work immediately but it is one of the fastest acting anti-depressants. If it does boost you into a euphoria right away, be weary. I too have a chemical romance with euphoric states of mind, hypomanic, seemingly superhuman states where everything seems possible and it literally is(b/c in the end, doubt is what prevents people from achieving their goals). Take away doubt as Zoloft and Prozac once did for me and what do I do? I write two books. Been trying to get back to that state of mind ever since for book three but so far, no cigar. I am now forever caught in a torturous search, desperately trying to find true pharmaceutical love again, "the holy grail of pharmaceutical weaponry that will make me feel invincible again".
But yeah...if you've been on EMSAM for two weeks or more, you've already done most of the leg work by deactivating a lot of monamine oxidase in your body. Since EMSAM is irreversible in it's effect, it will take another two weeks for the monamine oxidase to reactivate. You've only been off the EMSAM a week right? so you might get still have some deactive MAO and get an instant reaction to Parnate. Parnate will likely be stronger and deactivate much more MAO too.
As for brand v generic....if i were going out of my way to take something like Parnate, I would want the best and unfortunately there will always be a difference between generic and brand. Here's a good explanation of why:
"a generic must have between 80 percent and 125 percent bioequivalency to its name-brand producta window of 20 percent less or 25 percent greater potency. Generally, that kind of variation is not going to make a difference in terms of efficacy or toxicity. But imagine a large pharmacy that negotiates with different generic manufacturers and buys a generic formulation from one manufacturer that has 80 percent bioequivalency to the name brand. Then imagine the pharmacy switches manufacturers to one that markets a generic that has 125 percent bioequivalency. That's a 45 percent difference in bioequivalency that theoretically can make a significant difference for the patient. If it's a downward shift, it could affect efficacy; if it's an upward shift, it could affect toxicity. It is also not impossible for particularly sensitive individuals to have variable reactions to the inert materials in a compound. Individuals can sometimes be allergic and react differently to whatever substance goes into making up the capsule or the tablet."
So my advice would be get brand name if you can. Fortunately i've discovered a very reliable pharmacy in Canada called Jan's Drugs if you aren't covered for brand or don't have insurance. I'd post a link but i'm sure i'll get in trouble for soliciting. Do a google search. You can get a month supply of 100x(10mg) brand Parnate pills for 60 dollars if you take 30 mg/day. Or 200x(10mg) for $100 dollars if you take 60mg/day. That price is not bad considering that it is brand name Parnate(Glaxo- my favorite pharm company). Now if your insurance will cover brand then you're good and no need to order from Canada. If you choose the brand when a generic is available, you will be responsible for the difference in cost between the brand and the generic in addition to your generic copay for most plans. Drugstore.com is selling 100 tabs of 10mg brand Parnate for 151 dollars and generic for 112. That means 10 dollar copay + 151-112 = 50 dollars. Actually, that's not bad considering my copay for brand is 35 dollars. So go with brand if you can afford between 50-60 dollars out of pocket for a 30 day supply of 30 mg and 80-100 for 60mg supply.
poster:Kingston
thread:926582
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091127/msgs/927871.html