Posted by kcg33 on October 8, 2003, at 18:15:44
In reply to Re: You are probably right, posted by Sufferfromeffexor on October 8, 2003, at 15:46:38
What about the people that took this medication before the year 2000??? Correct me if I am wrong, please...but I thought I read on the FDA website that it wasn't enforced for them to put these fancy pamphlets in the cute little paper bags that the prescription comes in until around Feb. 2000? Also, I am concerned with the lack of emphasis on these warnings. They have them listed, just as a gallon of milk would list, yet there are so many signs that these withdrawals happen WAY more frequently than they make it seem. That is what concerns me. I know it is our own fault if we don't take head to the pretty little warning, but in todays society who has the time and energy to worry about those warnings (because I believe most are put on there based on very FEW cases)...but with Effexo I don't believe it to be that rare...why can't they just say more than likely you WILL experience dreadful withdrawals? Why can't they say that...oh maybe because someone might actually think twice about taking it if they knew the real warning? Just my opinion of course.
SufferfromEffexor: I totally agree with you. I don't believe there is any room for doubt for anyone that reads these posts how I feel about this situation. I will continue to make my case against Wyeth. I recognize that not all folks agree with me, and that is okay, because everyone is entitled to their own opinion in things. The only pharmacy that I have ever been to that actually places a slip of paper in the bag with the medication bottle is Walmart. Otherwise, both of the local pharmacies here do not do that. My pill bottle was a regular brown prescription bottle with a label taped to the side that said "Take one pill daily". That's all I had to go by. I had no warning, no advice, no counsel from my pharmacist, my doctor, NOBODY.
From the number of signatures on the Petition against Wyeth already in progress, (well over 3500 at this point), I would say I am not the only person outraged by this lack of counsel.
It is not and never was a desire of mine to get rich from this misery, my purpose in bringing a complaint to Wyeth is simply to force them into making the effects of this drug known. There are several ways this could be done, first of all, they could sell the drug only in the original bottles as some name brand drugs are sold, which have the little "piece of paper" inside instead of allowing the pharmacists to package scripts in the brown bottles and not counsel on the effects. The FDA could play a better role here by making it mandatory that to dispense this drug, any doctor or pharmacist should counsel the patient on the side effects before the script is filled.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that when FDA approved this drug, according to their study, the test consisted of a little over 300 people in one group and about 280 people in the placebo group? From this test, they decided they had all the side effects figured out and passed the drug through FDA approval. Now years later, we are all telling them that their little "study" was somewhat OFF, but there is still not movement toward a new study or warning people that there are many more side effects, and some pretty severe, than their handouts discuss.
This whole thing enrages me just as it does you and many other people out there. I personally feel like with all medications come some small percentage of adverse reactions in a very small number of people, but when the adverse reactions are the rule and not the exception in the greater majority of people taking a medication, it seems to me to beg the question "What's wrong here?"
My life in hell with Effexor has written my opinion of it in stone.
k
poster:kcg33
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031004/msgs/266894.html