Posted by med_empowered on October 16, 2005, at 9:42:47
In reply to Attenace and Nuvigil - any point?, posted by tecknohed on October 16, 2005, at 8:41:59
The Attenace thing is pure marketing...its like 5mgs Proscar (finasteride) morphing into 1mgs Propecia...suddenly, a "new drug" was invented. The funny thing is...it probably will work. Right now, ADHD applications for Provigil are strictly off-label, and don't seem to be that common. Once Attenace comes out, watch out for the usual "oohs" and "ahhhs" you see in psychiatric journals about any new drug--this one will be particularly welcomed b/c it will be a schedule IV stimulant for ADHD; re-fillable, just like cylert, only more effective than cylert or straterra, and also a viable augmentation option for bipolar, depression, and schizophrenia.
As for the isomer...I dont really know enough to answer that question. I do know that some data (unfortunately, COMPANY SPONSORED DATA) tends to show that lexapro works faster than celexa (and therefore faster than most SSRIs in general) and that's it more effective overall, probably in large part b/c of improved compliance on the part of patients. Its also supposedly a "cleaner" drug than celexa, although celexa is a pretty clean drug itself. I guess a different situation, but one somewhat similar, would be the Tegretol/Trileptal thing; they both work about the same (Tegretol might be more potent, but I haven't seen any hard data to that effect), but Trileptal, b/c of the added oxygen, plays *nicer* (not quite **nice**) with other drugs, and there isn't (usually) a need for blood tests. And then there's the Focalin thing...I'm not all that impressed by Focalin myself (its like the lexapro of ritalin), but I guess it works wonders for some people. At any rate, its about 2X as effective, mg per mg, as old-school ritalin and its side-effect profile is (supposedly) decidedly "cleaner". Speaking from a cynical point of view...it also helps to revive Ritalin as adhd treatment, since adderall has dominated the scene since it was re-introduced to the market in the mid 90s. It also cleans up the images of stimulants in general, allows for a whole new, very expensive series of Focalin drugs (focalin IR, focalin XR, etc.), and allows for expensive combo therapies (ex: ritalin LA+focalin). Brilliant. I read an article recently that said drug companies have pretty much stopped pumping out new, innovative drugs; if you look at the financial break down, big pharma spends more money on advertising than on R+D. Result? Lots of "me-too" drugs (Prozac leads to Zoloft leads to Celexa, etc. etc.) and then lots of Lexpro-type "new drugs"...basically pharmaceutical recycling. You'd expect more, what with the crazy high prices of meds and what not, but hey...maybe this is what happens when you let an industry pretty much self-regulate. Have a good one.
poster:med_empowered
thread:567533
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051010/msgs/567546.html