Posted by yxibow on February 8, 2006, at 11:30:28
In reply to Re: Brand name Klonopin, posted by RobertDavid on February 8, 2006, at 1:45:32
> 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.Not quite. There's an allowance between 80 and 1/80% (125%) of effective dose. But then we get into complicated things like AUC and blood levels, confidence intervals and statistics and it averages out closer to the original drug.
> 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.
Just how much Klonopin are you taking that 80 to 120% makes that much of a swing ? If you're taking the equivalent of what I take in Valium, that's one thing, but most people don't. I do believe it could be interpreted as also a little snide to others who aren't as fortunate for one to mention how powerful one's doctor is. But as long as we're here, by the way, my doctor has been chairmain of two places but I don't usually drop names because that's not in the spirit of things.
> 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 do not that much better with generic Valium than I had done with generic Klonopin.
>
> 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.That much I can agree and that's important here.
>
> 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.You can follow your good doctor's advice but if you start stacking up medications, polypharmacy, like I do, soon generic medications sound much better for the wallet. Copays go way down. Especially on PPOs.
Anyhow... tomato, tomahto... if you feel fine with your brand name Klonopin, be my guest. But you could buy someone something special for valentine's with the money saved :)
Tidings and cheers
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:607050
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060205/msgs/607490.html