Posted by smdd on February 28, 2001, at 23:41:22
In reply to nardil and deadly docs, posted by kate9999 on February 28, 2001, at 0:27:36
I was floored when you told me there was a tv episode about Nardil and drug interactions. Kind of makes one think that someone that contributes to the show, knows of an incident like that.
You are so right. Stone cold sober and no one noticing in real life.
I have a huge argument with an emergency room doctor (an internist) last year. I asked him several times if he was sure about the rx he was giving me and reminded him several times it was Nardil and Nardil was an MAO. He just smiled at me in an all knowing way and said "Sure it is okay, don't worry." Well I knew it wasn't okay as it was an inhaler for severe bronchitis. I had my husband take it to the pharmacy so he could see what happens trying to get these filled. The pharmacist caught it and said this happens all the time. My husband was so angry with the doctor for this. I told him I had been going through this for years and I was used to it. Even if the pharmacist says it is okay, I still check it out thoroughly before using anything prescribed, or OTC.
My doc doesn't understand my fear relating to this. I told him that I feel as if the assistant to my dentist will one day give me ephinephine just to see if it causes a reaction, or if I am just a whiner. I have had some dental work lately and that fear comes over me every single time.
I have been taking Nardil for almost six years now and I still have this fear. Food doesn't worry me much. It is the actions of others that bother me the most.
I have had the same thing happen with the pharmacist as you have and it is not the GP all the time either. As a matter of fact, I have highlighted my records just as you have. I even put MAO beside Nardil in big letter and circle it with the notation, SEVERE HYPERTENSIVE CRISIS POSSIBLE WITH DRUG INTERACTION. But..., they often forget to read that book we write them when we see a new doc. I think that is mostly for the clerk to put in for billing purposes.
I am starting to wonder if the warnings against using Nardil aren't more for the docs that don't pay attention in order to avoid malpractice claims and not really for the patient taking the drug.
All my psych says is you are your own consumer, Buyer Beware!!!
Thanks for your reply,
smdd
BTW-For the physicians out there that do pay attention, my comments obviously don't apply to you.
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> There's actually a Law and Order episode about a doctor that kills a patient on Nardil by injecting her accidentally with, I think, an antihistamine or a cough supressant.
>
> I found the episode unrealistic, though, because the mistake was presumably made just because he was drunk, and all of the doctors around him picked up on it and tried to stop him.
>
> In real life, it'd have been a stone cold sober doctor and nobody would have caught it.
>
> Wake up call for me - I go for migraines to a neurologist at a fairly prestigious hospital in Boston. We talk about how Nardil might be affecting my migraines at length, and the risks of stroke from migraine and from Nardil. He gives me 2 scripts. As an afterthought, as I'm leaving holding the scripts I say - these are both okay with Nardil, right? He says "oh, let me check." Turns out one is contraindicated in the PDR.
>
> For God's sake. I can almost understand if my GP occasionally "forgets", but this guy had no excuse at all.
>
> Like you, now I run every med I take by the pharmacist. They actually seem to carefully check like responsible professionals.
>
> Other thing I do is, when I fill out the form saying what meds I'm on I put exclamation marks and underline Nardil to draw attention to it.
> Maybe it's tilting at windmills, but I figure it can't hurt.
>
>
> > I agree with the statement that Nardil will not kill me, a medical professional will. I have had too many arguments with doctors on what I can take and what I cannot. After I leave the doctor, I go to my pharmacist and he just shakes his head and refuses to fill my rx. I know I cannot take many things they give me, but I feel by giving the rx to the pharmacist, it might help 'my case' someday. Witnesses so to speak.
>
> > Regarding a drug to augment Nardil. Several years ago, the psych that first gave me Nardil, suggested adding 10mg of desipramine. I refused out of fear, but he said he did this quite often. You might want to have your friend check with his psych about this, of course doing careful research to see if has ever really been done and documented.
> >
> > smdd
poster:smdd
thread:54817
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010221/msgs/55192.html