Posted by softheprairie on March 16, 2009, at 5:20:45
In reply to ENSAM-who told me I could get this in liquid or pi, posted by Cseagraves on March 14, 2009, at 20:14:37
I took Emsam in around 2007. I was getting a bit of depression help from the medication, but had various troubles with the patch format -- pain to remove, not sticking well -> feeling I wasn't getting all of the active ingredient I should, it was on my mind all the time and bothersome in a way I don't know how to describe. Along with my psychiatrist, I looked into selegiline in other forms. I ended up going with Zelapar ODT (orally disintegrating tablets) for several months, and we really upped the dose to try to get me to relief. If I recall corectly, I got up to 12 or more tablets a day, with each tablet being 1.25 mg (I'm just going by memory on this) (the normal dose in Parkinson's disease treatment, which is Zelapar's official FDA indication, is 1 or 2 of those tablets a day). While I got some benefit, it wasn't enough to offset the downside of the lifestyle restrictions (diet and inability to take some other meds I sometimes want), so I weaned off of it and tried a med of a differnt class (desipramine, a TCA, which, in combination with other things has been my best or 2nd best combo yet). Anyways, if things are the same now as about 1-2 years ago: I have some awful news. The Zelapar cost my insurance even more than Emsam! I'm thinking in the $800 to 1000/month range for the high dose I got to. The makers of Emsam and Zelapar are able to get away with highway robbery for now, as no generic of the patch nor orally disintegrating tablet forms are allowed to be sold in the US. Others have talked about the swallowed pill form, which is cheaper, but I have no experience with that and can't say much there. In my limited understanding, the swallowed form gets digested in the gut and has trouble getting to the brain to be psychoactive, which is why there is a market for the exorbitantly priced patch and ODT forms. But, maybe with a high enough dose, some of the swallowed kind can make it to the brain sufficiently to help some people.
Perhaps you could apply to the maker of Emsam if they have a patient assistance program to send it to your prescriber's office for free? That is how I am currently getting one of my meds.
(The maker of Zelapar probably wouldn't agree to give it to someone where the prescriber's directions are to take a does so many times higher than officially approved for in Parkinson's.)
poster:softheprairie
thread:885365
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090313/msgs/885590.html