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switching genic brands of pills anyone else have problems with this


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ive been on watson 0.5mg ativan for years  some times i get mylan which are not as good  and today i got  a new brand  the pill says e p 904 on it i just took my first dose and i feel like im going through withdrawls already  its made by Major Pharmaceuticals Inc    who subs it out to Leading Pharma, LLC    anyone else have trouble switching  im going to try and give it a day or so but if it keeps ups what are my opinions ?  call my dr ?  call the pharamcy ? and see if i can get different pills ?
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This is an easy one, there may be a slight variation in the dose of the active ingredient of any generic; I remeber it’s around 10%. For most people they can’t tell the difference, for us in withdrawal it can be huge; just give it a couple of weeks to stabilize and you’re good.
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Ethan-H212    i talk to a pharmacist  who is a friend of the family know him for years he still works part time and he said that the FDA approves a window of 20%  in the active ingredient  from the name brand to generic pills  and right now there a shortage on ativan or generic lorazapam in the united states only two companies out of  about 10 and making the pills ive never had name brand buy have always been on watsons  or mylan and i can tell the difference between the 2 pills mylan takes me a few days to adjust because they are not as strong so i go through a slight withdrawl and high anxiety but its tolerable but these new pill i got  are 20 times worse then even mylan  within 45 mins of taking it i starting to go into complete withdrawal
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I noticed the same thing with different generic diazepam.

I'm experiencing withdrawals now, and trying to stabilize. 

Funny how our systems are so sensitive.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...
Going through the same thing with clonazepam it’s best to gradually switch over if at all possible and even then it’s still rough.  Mylan and Teva stopped making clonazepam Teva bought actavis and are selling their pills now.  A lot of people are having a hard time including myself.  I’m on my second round of switching .25mg and the withdrawals etc have been extremely bad but it’s getting better now 8 days in.  It has to do with absorption rate and the plus or minus 20% allowed window.  These companies should know this is going to cause major problems for people and at the very least give warnings that they will be stopping.  Luckily I have a years worth of mylan to switch over because switching over completely is a totally different story already tried that.
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I'm having the exact same problem with Leading .5 Lorazepam.  I was given this brand by my Walgreens last month, and within 4 days, I felt like I was back in acute withdrawal.  It took me another week to recognize that it might be the generic I was using.  I talked to my pharmacist, and sure enough, I had been given a new generic (Leading).  The thing is, though, with the shortage of .5mg Lorazepam, my Walgreens had been using a few different brands, and I had been given Leading several months prior.  But I didn't notice anything unusual several months ago.  So maybe I got a particularly weak batch?  It's a terrible thing to have to worry about.  I would gladly pay full price for non-generic, if it were offered to me.
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I'm having the exact same problem with Leading .5 Lorazepam.  I was given this brand by my Walgreens last month, and within 4 days, I felt like I was back in acute withdrawal.  It took me another week to recognize that it might be the generic I was using.  I talked to my pharmacist, and sure enough, I had been given a new generic (Leading).  The thing is, though, with the shortage of .5mg Lorazepam, my Walgreens had been using a few different brands, and I had been given Leading several months prior.  But I didn't notice anything unusual several months ago.  So maybe I got a particularly weak batch?  It's a terrible thing to have to worry about.  I would gladly pay full price for non-generic, if it were offered to me.

 

Yep exactly I’d gladly pay $400 a month for Mylan clonazepam instead of brand name but Mylan are a bunch of idiots.  Not making enough raise the price don’t discontinue a benzo you’ve been making for 20 years!  What are these companies thinking?????

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i lucked out after posting this i found 1 scripted of watson at my old drug store my pcp called it in the next day  for me and after that i spent a couple days trying to track down more watsons the pharmacy tryed to order them but they kept saying they could not get them which i believe was  a lie because i just got on medicaid and was no longer a cash paying customer but my i ended up having my mom check at her work at cvs shes a pharmacy tech and they had them and ive been on watsons ever since it was a huge relief i still have 89 n 1/2 pills out of 90 pills  of the leading pharmacy garbage 
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i lucked out after posting this i found 1 scripted of watson at my old drug store my pcp called it in the next day  for me and after that i spent a couple days trying to track down more watsons the pharmacy tryed to order them but they kept saying they could not get them which i believe was  a lie because i just got on medicaid and was no longer a cash paying customer but my i ended up having my mom check at her work at cvs shes a pharmacy tech and they had them and ive been on watsons ever since it was a huge relief i still have 89 n 1/2 pills out of 90 pills  of the leading pharmacy garbage

 

Yep I feel you at least I have over a years worth of mylan clonazepam to make this switch because it’s definitely harder than I thought it was gonna be and if I have to I’ll up my dose because it’s just a number at this point so I’ll give it some time to see if I adjust because I did adjust better on switching out some brand name but tomorrow is 2 weeks from switching.25mg of mylan with activas and it’s been terrible but seems to be getting better.  Anyways good luck to anyone dealing with this and call the FDA and have them send you a form to file a complaint basically so they are aware of this issue.  The lady I spoke with actually understood it’s the rate of absorption from using different fillers and she was also very nice and professional about it.  She actually cared unlike these pharmaceutical companies.  I told the FDA they should not be allowed to just stop making benzos you’ve been making for 20 years or at least be required to use the same fillers so it’s universal.  If I wanted to go through benzo withdrawals I’d just come off the medication.  ✌️

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what do you mean just stop making benzos ?  the pharma companies ?  The first such drug, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was discovered accidentally by Leo Sternbach in 1955, and made available in 1960 by Hoffmann–La Roche, which, since 1963, has also marketed the benzodiazepine diazepam (Valium). In 1977 benzodiazepines were globally the most prescribed medications. more then 40 years
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what do you mean just stop making benzos ?  the pharma companies ?  The first such drug, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was discovered accidentally by Leo Sternbach in 1955, and made available in 1960 by Hoffmann–La Roche, which, since 1963, has also marketed the benzodiazepine diazepam (Valium). In 1977 benzodiazepines were globally the most prescribed medications. more then 40 years

 

What I mean is that mylan stopped producing clonazepam that I take so yes the pharma companies.  They were either produced by hoffman la roche or mylan but all I know is that I can’t get Mylan clonazepam ANYMORE EVER but they still make Xanax and Valium which makes no sense at all.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Jumpman:  I agree with Ethan.  If there is a variation by a small percentage in the amount of the benzo in the drug, then you will stabilize to the base line that you

were previously.  But, it sounds like you are having symptoms because of tolerance.  In your case, if you can hold and then begin to  taper without feeling much worse,

then you are healing.

 

After 2 mg of clonazepam for 18 years and in acute withdrawal, I can say for certainty, that I am feeling fewer symptoms as I am pushing downward and now at

about 4% of 1 mg.  Yes, every day is rough but not so much more than when I discovered the drug was causing the symptoms. 

 

You might want to check out the section in Ashton's Manual on tolerance withdrawal.  This section is in her Supplement.  She says in there  "one never stabilizes on a given dose" and "True recovery cannot really start until the drug is out of the system".  So, I'm thinking, why put off the inevitable. 

 

Wishing you all the best in your recovery.

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