Posted by katekite on June 27, 2002, at 17:37:02
In reply to Re: new news on LEXAPRO!!!!!!!!!!!, posted by Cecilia on June 26, 2002, at 21:18:55
Cecilia's makes a lot of sense.
Lexapro is "twice as effective" only in name. If you took 40 mg of celexa you would only need 20 of lexapro to get both the good (and most likely the bad) side effects. Celexa weighs twice as much for the same amount of effect, that's all. It is remotely possible that Lexapro is more potent, as well, but just remotely.
Celexa is composed of two versions of one chemical, two enantiomers. One is a mirror image of the other. They call one version the R version, and the other version the L version. It happens in Celexa that it is the L version that is helpful psychologically. (or at least most of the effect seems to come from it). Celexa has equal numbers of the R and the L, by weight, in the pill. There is always the possibility when a drug is a mixture of two things, that one of the things is causing the bad side effects and the other is causing the good effects.
Lexapro is pure L version... they have somehow refined the chemical process so the mirror images are not made. The good news is that it is an active drug. It is hard to know yet if it will have the same side effects as celexa or not.
A completely separate reason for developing a new drug is if the patent is running out on the old one: I don't know if this is the case for Lexapro and Celexa but it seems a bit suspicious.
This same drug development strategy has been used already many times. For example, for Focalin, which is one version of the two mirror-image chemicals that are in Ritalin. (One is active, the other not.) People report that Focalin is a little cleaner feeling than Ritalin: it's pretty new, so I think that's just anecdotal at this point. Focalin definitely is functional and works as well as Ritalin.
My opinion on the issue is that Lexapro will not be a wonder drug. The best thing about Lexapro is that Celexa has been around a while (as far as new gruesome side effects go we should be fairly safe with it). Lexapro may even have fewer side effects but its hard to know so far. I would try it if I had been trying to increase my dose of celexa for therapeutic effects but had hit a wall of side effects. Or if offered celexa first time out, might opt for Lexapro instead.
kate
(If you look at Dr. Bob's new picture his question marks are backwards, which makes one wonder: is he more or less effective this way? Is his patent running out? :)
poster:katekite
thread:110614
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020617/msgs/110941.html