Posted by Mary Ann on March 13, 2001, at 14:11:02
In reply to serzone side effects, posted by teresa on March 13, 2001, at 1:18:15
I have only been on Serzone for about 3 and one-half weeks now, but I noticed that many of my compulsive behaviors have returned, such as counting, etc. They went away when I was on Prozac. I think that Serzone DOES have an effect with the sun because I have noticed an increase light sensitivity that I didn't previously have. Your doctor should take your side effects seriously. Too bad you can't affort to switch. Perhaps your doctor isn't too educated about the drug and its side effects? Or perhaps he/she thinks these are side effects that you must live with. I disagree. I work for an alternative healthcare management magazine and we recently ran the following news piece about side effects and depression:
Patient/ Physician Communication Gap Hinders Depression Recovery
A recent study reveals that more than 75% of the people being treated for major depression feel their illness isn't under complete control and more than half of those who have experienced side effects ceased using their prescribed antidepressant because of side effects. The survey, conducted for the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (National DMDA, Chicago), reveals that a significant communication gap between primary care physicians and patients is at the root of the problem. The study, Beyond Diagnosis: A Landmark Survey on Depression and Treatment, involved interviews with 1,001 patients and nearly 900 primary care physicians.Additional findings include:
Although doctors say they routinely alert patients about side effects when prescribing antidepressants; patients reveal this is often not the case.
Few primary care physicians (27%) believe that antidepressant side effects are temporary or can't be avoided (9%), compared to a significant proportion of patients (59% and 40%, respectively) who believe they have to put up with side effects for these very reasons.
While 90% of the patients who had side effects say they told their primary care doctor about them, close to 20% also report that their doctor did not do anything in response.
Almost half of all patients surveyed report having had side effects, which caused 55% to stop taking their antidepressant and 17% to skip doses.This is a very abbreviated version of the report, but if you want to view the entire report, look up www.ndmda.org. For a copy of the full
executive summary, contact Kelly Hammel or
Geralyn LaNeve.
Phone: 212-886-2200Good luck and hope your doc comes around.
poster:Mary Ann
thread:56346
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010310/msgs/56396.html