Posted by chad_3 on October 17, 2002, at 0:35:01
In reply to Re: Why not make most psychotropics OTC?, posted by Mystia on October 16, 2002, at 21:08:44
Mystia -
I agree mostly with your points.
It's true that most of the psychotropics can be really bad news in overdose. And I think most OTC stuff is fairly hard to OD on.
Tricyclics, MAOI's, benzo's, most everything I think they could leave "by prescrip". But I guess I wonder about the top 4 - which I would guess accounts for over half of revenue of the psychotropics - Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa.
5ht is sold OTC - and liquor is addictive, and also leads to half of all auto fatalities. SSRI's are, (I think) - supposedly fairly begign even in large overdose, unlike tricyclics and MAOIS etc....
So if 5ht-c it OTC, and liquor, why not the "top 4 ssri's"?
Maybe it is a bad idea. I just wonder what impact that would have on the pschiatric community - which will usually try to prescribe the SSRI if it is accepted by the patient. MY GP did that for me 7 years ago - why do I need a psychiatrist for Prozac?
I am probably a bit sour grapes because I have been shunned by p-docs not wanting to touch my trickier case - but still - I think we might be headed that way to some legalized SSRIs.
I found out today - I had trouble getting Nardil because manufacturer has stopped making it awhile and is out - so stocks are dwindling. Any more coming? I don't know.
Much OTC stuff (cold,cough) and most psychotropics are contraindicated with Nardil and Parnate. Might be easier to just get rid of the MAOI's which aren't making much money for anyone anyway ...
Just some misc. rambling ... ok - well I'm out - and for the record, honestly you do not sound like a b**** to me. I appreciate the candid opinions.
Chad
> Ok...hypothetical situation here: Let's say that all psychotropics (or at least MOST) are OTC. Let's say we have a woman named Mary. Mary is a hypochondriac. She thinks she has every disease known to mankind and goes to the doctor at least once a week. Now, let's say she starts getting mad at her doctor because he's telling her nothing is wrong with her. She decides to get these OTC psychotropic drugs because she really believes she has all these illnesses (when she really doesn't). If she takes all these meds trying to *cure* herself, and becomes suicidal, then who would be to blame??? And what if she is SUCCESSFUL in her suicide attempt?!? Many drugs do cause suicidal thoughts in some people, AND there are SO many meds that shouldn't be taken together, or shouldn't be taken by certain people. That is why we have doctors, to tell us what WE don't know. The docs did NOT go through years of med school just for people to log on to the internet and buy scripts!!! That is exactly why I think buying meds online should be illegal and not practiced. People tend to have "gambler's fallacy" and think they are right all the time. I'm sorry, but any time people can buy drugs online, that is asking for trouble. I mean, just think if some drug dealer got ahold of something like valium, oxycontin, even xanax and started selling to kids in the streets or WORSE in the schools?!? As sad as it seems, you have to think about the consequences OTC psychotropics (or ANY Rx med) being OTC would be. There are some sick people in the world, just waiting to take advantage of children or naive people.
> I am sorry that's so long....AND I am not trying to put anyone down. I just had to get that off my chest....which brings me to something topic-related....I think Lexapro is turning me into a B**** (female dog in other words)
poster:chad_3
thread:123854
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021012/msgs/123965.html