Posted by laima on July 22, 2006, at 9:40:07
In reply to Re: emsam 6 mg/24 = ? oral selegiline?, posted by jealibeanz on July 21, 2006, at 19:56:47
I just tried to reply, wrote a long response, but hit a wrong button and deleted it- so please forgive if I am repeating myself here is this slightly shorter response.
Yes!! Recent ENSAM Conference. I think it was attended by psychiatrists and drug rersearchers and the company who manufactures EMSAM. I understand there were presentations and then the various doctors stood up to share their clinical observations and reports from patients. One important consensis that came up is that it seems that the 6 is simply too low of a dose to benefit most people. One doctor reported that he succesfully treated 150 people with the 9 and the 12. Good news: company apparently took loads of notes on what the doctors were reporting.
I will be switching to the 9, which unfortunately will require dietary cautions and restrictions. I suspect the 6 was so heavily touted precisely because it doesn't require the strict restrictions, but alas some of the freedom supposedly offered by EMSAM apparently isn't turning out to be exactly true in real practice. I think many people might feel let down by this reality. Regardless, the higher dose patches are still said to be safer than the oral pills in case one slightly goofs with their diet. The 9 is said to be roughly equal to 60-90mg of the oral.
My doctor is a psychopharmacologist (psychiatrist who specializes in drugs) and is affiliated with a med school- I guess that's why he's so up on this stuff.
I didn't experience any side effects with the 6- nothing. I think it wqas utterly ineffective for me. This 9 is said to be far more potent, so i'll see how it goes. As for going back to pills- I'm told that all strengths of the patches are safer than the pills, and are far more effective in reaching the brain eficiently. My doctor believes it is a superior product.
Perhaps your gp hasn't heard much about EMSAM yet? It's so new, after all. Are you able to try to find a psychiatrist who might me more informed?
> I'm surprised they had an entire conference devoted to EMSAM. I wonder if that's common. I've never heard of such a thing. You're lucky to have such an open-minded and informed doctor. Is he a general practitioner or a psychiatrist?
>
> It's good to hear that actual physicians have positive experiences to report. We've heard a great deal of negatives on this message board, but that's probably because the people who are doing well are out living and not searching for something else to help relieve the depression.
>
> That makes sense that the 6mg is too low, but is still being produced. They were probably just desperate to have a dosage which could definitely be marketed as not requiring dietary restriction. I've never found any of the studies that differentiates between the efficacy of the 3 dosages. Maybe they were trying to hide the fact that 6 mg isn't so great. Nonetheless, it can be used as a stepping stone to 9 or 12 mg. Do you know if any discussion has been made about going higher than 12?
>
> I don't see much problem with the diet though. There's really nothing I personally have to avoid, except tap beer, but bottled is OK, which I prefer anyway. The rest of the foods are rather odd... pickled meat, ect. I realize some people will have to give up aged cheese, but at least pizza is still alright!
>
> Do you have any side effects to report? I'm sure there will be many that will be coming in within the next year or so. That's why I question whether my doctor (a GP) would ever consider prescribing this, if he;s even aware of the drug (he should be, right?) unless I begged. It's not that he's one of the docs who's paranoid about being sued for malpractice (especially by me), he just wouldn't want to hurt me or cause any further discomfort (because I have a lot right now!) in my life.
poster:laima
thread:645567
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060717/msgs/669309.html