Posted by RobertDavid on February 8, 2006, at 1:45:32
In reply to Re: Brand name Klonopin » Gabbix2, posted by yxibow on February 8, 2006, at 1:04:29
>But I fail to see how on one hand one claims generic isnt as potent, and on the other hand, adjusting for that account (a very slight partial dose) and seeing what takes effect. If a drug truly is 80% as effective than prescribe 25% more of the generic medication. And you'll have money left over to buy a lot more things.
It's my understanding from my doctor that generic "klonopin" can be either less potent or more potent which if true causes even more concern. If a doctor assumes generic is less potent and perscribes more, a patient might get a significantly stonger batch and over medicate. As my doctor pointed out to me, as you go from refil to refil, one might have a 80% strenght compared to brand then go to a 120% strenght compared to brand which would really be problematic.
> I'm not saying that there couldn't be a difference between brand name Klonopin and some generics, I'm just saying its godawful expensive, and nearly no doctor or hospital prescribes brand name benzodiazepines because they've been expired for more than 20 years except for Xanax's attempt at patent extension with Xanax XR. In fact, scripts for benzodiazepine medication are not even written for the name of the drug any more -- they're written, clonazepam, diazepam, alprazolam (11-14x more expensive as Xanax).My doctor, the chairman of Cedar Sinai Psychiatry Dept. writes on my scripts Klonopin "brand only", he does not want me to take generic. I pay the extra cost gladly, I know not everyone can though.
> Actually I agree with you there -- but a good doctor weighs what he or she has seen in evidence based psychiatry, over a large number of patients. There's also the placebo effect, believe it or not, 33% of the time that is the case.I too believe in a placebo effect, but I'm told that's not the case concerning Klonopin based on his research and extensive use in treating patients with anxiety disorters. Seems many other meds are fine as generics. For example I see many people do fine with generic valium (though I'm not saying there may not be a variance there, just don't hear people make issue of it like I do with klonopin - perhaps that's a med that generic is just fine).
I agree that this place is a good sounding board. That's what we're doing here and I think people can take info here and further explore it with their doctors.
But for me on this topic, I feel I'm seeing one of the best Psychiatrists in the nation on anxiety disorters, paying him the big bucks for his savvy, he tells me to swith to brand, writes the scripts that way, I follow his advise and have better relief at same generic dose for my SP. That's good enough for me. It's just my 2 cents worth.
poster:RobertDavid
thread:607050
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060205/msgs/607425.html