tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post4359356849794063545..comments2024-03-28T08:45:19.645-05:00Comments on Family Dysfunction and Mental Health Blog: Assuming Facts Not in Evidence II - Sleeping MedicationsDavid M. Allen M.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-74483383739163899622013-10-25T02:42:15.732-05:002013-10-25T02:42:15.732-05:00I've been selling pharmaceuticals for the last...I've been selling pharmaceuticals for the last decade and agree with Dr. Allen's assesment of Big Pharma's sleazy marketing techniques. Over the years I've witnessed reps promoting drugs off label, encouraging doctors to give medication coupons to their Medicare patients (who are not allowed to use coupons) and tell the patients to pay cash for the drug (Medicare fraud), significantly increase the prices of old brand-name drugs (Advair is now $350!), produce suspicious marketing literature that gets yanked by the FDA in six months, pay doctors $2,500 to give a one-hour presentation at a speaker program and put pressure on them to prescribe more of the company's drugs, etc. <br /><br />Doctors can also be guilty of participating in the sleaze--many physicians prescribe my drug off label, which they have the right to do. But I cannot discuss any off-label uses, and some customers push me to see if they can get off-label information (including clinical research in progress) out of me. I never give in, but it really bothers me that they don't respect the fact that I can only discuss approved indications.<br /><br />I sell a great drug now (reduces pain and has minimal adverse events) but it is a very old one that cannot be made into a bioequivalent generic, so the price just keeps going up and up. This is incredibly sleazy, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-83664290517830872852012-02-24T13:24:45.344-06:002012-02-24T13:24:45.344-06:00I do wish more doctors in private practice were in...I do wish more doctors in private practice were independent thinkers.<br /><br />I tend not to want to be too into conspiracy thinking. I have noticed it feeds my "vulnerability." I've learned that paranoia is the result of using misperception of my self. In effect, conspiracy thinking is use a lens that should be retooled, because it's created a "lack of self trust" and allowing that lens to be used in looking away from myself, outwards, skewing my vision of the world. <br /><br />And thereby using my lack of self trust as a way of judging everyone else's motives. <br /><br />I learned this when I had a bad response to low blood sugar. I wondered, "why am I feeling paranoia, out of the blue. When I have had plenty of sleep? And once I fed myself, I could recognize the trigger in my thinking that had spiraled out of control. I could question how I was thinking about my SELF and the paranoia disappeared!Smittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12681768755769989964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-84640146213558598462012-02-24T10:06:07.330-06:002012-02-24T10:06:07.330-06:00RCHI,
The post is actually more a criticism of th...RCHI,<br /><br />The post is actually more a criticism of the doctors who fall for this nonsense and should know better than it is of the drug companies. If the marketing tricks did not work, the companies wouldn't be using them.David M. Allen M.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06280912088483192599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-36578450553050741602012-02-24T09:51:51.817-06:002012-02-24T09:51:51.817-06:00I kind of like the conspiracy thinking. I've w...I kind of like the conspiracy thinking. I've written somewhere before that big pharmas have to act like the corporations that they are, lest we forget that it's commerce, after all, that gave us dirt-cheap aspirin.RCHIhttp://reallycheaphealthinsurance.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-22985297272311237242012-02-24T07:12:51.802-06:002012-02-24T07:12:51.802-06:00I said, "One day I would share with you,"...I said, "One day I would share with you," and changed my mind. Obviously I got motivated last night and did it.<br /><br />I am a lot less scared of my story, my (mis) diagnosis and my prognosis these days. <br /><br />In large part because I believe those old tried and true drugs have their place in our current medication regimen. This clap trap about how much more effective the new meds are needs to be spoken. Thank you for doing so. I appreciate that the very drugs you were discussing are the ones that were withheld from me outside the "controlled" hospital setting.<br /><br />But I NEEDED them in my home so I could actually manage my own crises. You can tell me until I am blue in the face that Seroquel is an anti-psychotic. I am medication sensitive, so I know that even the mildest dose is more about sedation, and removing my ability to care, and my will. There is the slightest bit of anxiety quelling, but on a bad night when I need add a punch, I add the Clonopin. I can't believe that without proof that I was not addictive (I told the first doc I was not an addictive personality, but it got me nowhere)... I was not able to get a script for anti anxiety medications!Smittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12681768755769989964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-57013550792388669322012-02-23T22:54:48.188-06:002012-02-23T22:54:48.188-06:00My new doc took me down off my heavy meds, but als...My new doc took me down off my heavy meds, but also gave me no tools to deal with what was now a PTSD response, from the fear of not getting good sleep. And fear of psychosis. It took me a second hospitalization for me to get my needs met. I was in a hospital where the psychiatrist consulted with me and listened to me. In that hospital setting, I got a whole arsenal of medications to take home, and my regular psychiatrist smiled at the collection. Interestingly I had managed to keep my antipsychotic medication from being increased in the hospital. I had the topmost dose of nasty Trazadone for sleep instead. It did not work well for me.<br /><br />I forgot to bring the anti anxiety medication with me, when I "showed off" my new medication regimen. <br /><br />I set off to wean myself almost as soon as I felt able. I started on the medication that my doctor would be least likely to object to: The Trazadone. And within six weeks I was completely off of it. Such a success I felt in being able to move in a positive direction. <br /><br />I would use that anti anxiety medication, clonopin, that was given me in hospital. I had actually been given it back in 1991, by the old-school docs, so I knew how it worked and I knew just having it in the medicine chest would help me to know I had a "friend" when I could not be a friend to myself, and ward off anxiety.<br /><br />After a year of using the 30 tablets, one-half at a time, i went into my psychiatrist, and brought my bottle to show him what I had been using in order to prevent hospitalizations. Clonopin. I showed him how I still had some tablets left. <br /><br />Ii had the proof I needed in order for him to prescribe me the medication I had needed. I could not be an addict and have the lowest dosage of clonopin last me nearly a year. <br /><br />That was how I got my script. I feel lucky. But many folks on public assistance, who could use an anti-anxiety medication PRN are still being told these drugs are dangerous, addictive, etc.<br /><br />How funny that my 30 tablets cost me a tiny tiny fraction of my current atypical antipsychotic. I am on the lowest dosage of that as well.... and take it at night.... <br /><br />So, do you think there is any chance it really is an antipsychotic for me? Or do you think maybe I am just preventing a psychosis by getting good sleep?<br /><br />Just like our men in active duty in Afghanistan?Smittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12681768755769989964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3125132926699584358.post-9668973805598801412012-02-23T22:54:04.829-06:002012-02-23T22:54:04.829-06:00Amen, Dr. Allen. One day I will share with you ho...Amen, Dr. Allen. One day I will share with you how I had to trump my own doctor with a surprise from out in left field, that enabled me to cut through a Catch-22. The Catch-22 I encountered is that typical, responsible psychiatrists don't want to prescribe anti-anxiety medications because they are addictive.<br /><br />My perception, and it could be wrong, is that this is especially true for those patients who have issues with psychosis. Ambien is often not prescribed to us, either. (Fine by me, Ambien is a weird drug, much weirder than any anti anxiety medication)... <br /><br />But back to the anti-anxiety bit. I knew, the first time I had a psychosis, and got over the initial trauma of the experience, what the triggers had been. Hormonal lack of sleep, compounded by unchecked anxiety.<br /><br />The first, old-schoold psychiatrists "got" that connection and gave me a script for anti-anxiety medications, PRN. Well, I didn't need them that much and needed them less and I stabilized. I am not an addictive sort of person.<br /><br />Some thirteen years later, I had a relapse, in prescription happy Georgia (influenced by a climate in which some Atlanta doctors made huge amounts of money on the edge of legality).. suddenly all we were given for psychosis was Depakote and Rerperdal. <br /><br />In the months following my recovery, I came to recognize my issue was anxiety, and again, lack of sleep around my period. <br /><br />My good doc nixed the Ambien script I got from a primary care doctor. He said it could precipitate psychosis. He also refused to give me an anti anxiety medication. Well, the sedatives I was on, I can assure you, were something one habituates to. The anxiety can still flare up. I needed something to use when I could not manage it myself.<br /><br />I replaced that psychiatrist, with the help of human angels who encouraged me to do so, when I was really not a good advocate for myself.<br /><br />To be continued.Smittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12681768755769989964noreply@blogger.com