Posted by AKC on July 19, 2001, at 10:56:05
In reply to Re: To Purple, posted by jotho on July 19, 2001, at 10:23:34
I have to add to this also.
I am now on topamax. My doctor is a saint, in my book. All the official lit told her to put my on it at 50 mg, and titrate me up at 50mg a week. But all my research -- all the anectdotal stuff I read on the net (and I read everything I could find), told me to do no more than 25mg a week. I am lucky enough to have a doctor who trusts me, and that's the route we took. But what if I had not had the energy, the resources, the brain power to do that. My doctor did her research. I have had some side effects - how bad would they have been? Probably so bad, I would have had to quit taking the med (some cognitive dulling - with the latest increase somewhat disturbing and it lasted three days, but it did go away) - and so far, this med has turned out to be a miracle med for me.
So many of these meds are put on the market with so little testing -- we demand it so often - we are desparate - and the companies are desparate for profits (because shareholders like myself are desparate for higher stock prices and dividends). I don't think that when new information begins to trickle in, that information is getting passed on very efficiently. Is a lawsuit the answer? Definitely in somecases (think phen-fen - I think the drug companies waited much too long before pulling the plug on that one). In other cases, we are much too litigous (for those on this board, you may not know, I am an attorney, but not a litigator, so take this comments with a grain of salt. :) !)
anyway, my thoughts.
Your resident hounddog.
poster:AKC
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010714/msgs/70843.html