Posted by Tony P on July 10, 2009, at 22:51:51
In reply to Re: Savella(Ixel,Milnacipran) for anxiety?, posted by KB1 on July 4, 2009, at 0:04:31
> Hello, I was wondering if anyone has taken the Ixel brand of milnacipran (made in France) and then changed over to the Savella brand?(newly available in the usa)...
> I took the Ixel brand for approx 4 months (I ordered it through a mail order pharmacy starting in Jan 09 while waiting for the Savella brand to arrive in the american pharmacies after it was approved by the FDA) From the first week the Ixel/french brand worked extremely well for me with no side effects and I was happy that the drug had been approved for use in this country...I then switched to the Savella (usa brand) when it finally became available in pharmacies here expecting it to be very similar to the French manufactured drug-however I have surprisingly experienced many negative side effects including having all my fibro pain come back worse than before, extreme dizzyness, freezing hands and feet, and the worst side effect of all of feeling increasingly depressed....I thought at first the pharmacy must have given me the wrong drug! I dont understand how the same exact drug could have such different effects just due to the manufacturing company?...
> I would love to know if anyone else has gone from taking the french brand to the usa one?
> Kind regards,
> Kate
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I haven't taken either version myself, but putting my biochemist's hat on: .... ;-)Celexa & Lexapro differ only in that Celexa is a mixture of 2 different forms (stereoisomers, for the technically-mided), while Lexapro is the pure form of the most active of the pair. They were like night and day for me. My pdoc said the "bad" half of Celexa had 1% of the antidepressant effect and 99% of the side effects.
Soooo -- just to speculate, what if the US manufacturer is being less careful to separate possible isomers?? It's certainly possible.
poster:Tony P
thread:893870
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090709/msgs/906151.html