I while back I got my tegratol filled and the pills were different, they came from a different manufacturer. They worked better than ever and I’ve never had so much mood stability for such a long period of time, cool huh?! Well, got it filled again the other day, same pharmacy, but I got the old pills again, and lost stability. Does anyone else have issues like this? I was really enjoying that new found mood stability and I am disappointed.
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My dad, when he was alive, experienced the same thing. He was taking a blood thinner called warfarin. He had no side effects from the drug from this one company, but then got all kinds of weird side effects when he was given the same drug made by a different company.
The same drug made by different companies apparently has incremental differences.
By the way. Thanks for bringing this issue up.
No problem. That’s interesting about the warfarin. I was wondering if it was just psych meds that were like that or not. I also had a similar problem with lithium. You’d think there would be more quality control.
Yes, I’ve noticed differences in drugs from different manfacturers. Can you or your Dr ask for the manufacturer of one you want next time?
I think the only thing I could do is ask for brand instead of generic. Perhaps life is too short to take cheap drugs.
I noticed the same problem with my Seroquel. The new manufacturer meds were MUCH more effective. So I asked the pharmacy, Walgreens, to order from that manufacturer from now on. They put it in my profile and I’ve been getting the good one ever since.
Maybe you could try this!
Blessings,
Anthony
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Wow, I didn’t think they would do that. I’m gonna try that, thanks.
Most medications have the generic and then the name brand versions. Clozaril/Clozapine, Abilify/Aripiprazole etc.
Talk to your pharmacist and see if they can switch you back to the version that you had the stability on.
I don’t know who regulates the amounts of active ingredients in a medication but yes there should be more quality control.
Yep, had a friend with depression that was on Lexapro and they worked fine.
She tried the generic and they did not work as well.
This is going to be more and more of a concern with the U.S trying to cut corners and back lash over the new health care changes that are crashing and burning.
I read a story somewhere where a pharmacy switched meds on an ADD adult despite the very clear note from the doctor that said, “NO GENERIC” and to save money the pharmacy went generic anyway. The poor man had a relapse due.
I can’t do generic and I keep an eye on this.
Once i tried different manufactured risperdal, and i was having depression, and sleepiness, i called the pharmacy and told them about it but they had changed back to old one, probably they got a lot of complaints from risperdal users. But the pharmacy denied that my depression and sleepiness is caused by that pill, they were saying that maybe the med dose is low, when i took the old pill next day all of those symptoms went away.
This is an interesting topic.
The first time I went generic my symptoms got worse. So I had the doctor order the brand name and paid the extra for years.
Then I got poorer and had no choice but to switch to generic … but the second time they worked fine.
Different brands of generics work differently. I take almost all generic - for physical and mental health. Some of them I have my Dr specify a particular manufacturer.