On Medical News Today the study they report on show using modafinil (Provigil) to help control that nasty weight-gain side effect. The other day I posted that it’s been found that Provigil is ADDICTIVE just like the antipsychotics they want to add it onto.
So once again we start adding on the drugs. And now someone with one drug dependency now has two.
Provigil is also associated with psychosis ocasionally, so it’s, again, rather ironic and terribly disturbing to add a drug to minimize side-effects of a drug that is used to get rid of the side effect of the drug they are using to get rid of it’s side effect.
Follow all that…I hardly can. This is insanity!!
Antipsychotic drugs, such as olanzapine (Zyprexa), risperidone (Risperdal) and quetiapine (Seroquel), are commonly used to treat psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, but also bipolar disorder and even behavioral problems related to dementia. Unfortunately, the weight gain commonly experienced with antipsychotic treatment is an important side effect for many patients, and causes many patients to discontinue their use leading to even further problems. Biological Psychiatry, in its April 1st issue, is now publishing a new study that has evaluated an add-on treatment to potentially reduce treatment-associated weight gain.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Dr. James Roerig and colleagues evaluated the effect of modafinil on olanzapine-associated weight gain in normal volunteer subjects. Modafinil is a drug currently used to increase wakefulness in individuals with sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy. All of the subjects received olanzapine, and half also received modafinil treatment while the other half instead received placebo. After three weeks, although the body mass index was increased in both groups, those receiving olanzapine/placebo showed significantly greater weight increase than those receiving olanzapine/modafinil.
If you want to look into possible alternatives to meds start with my about page.
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Gianna,
Provigil, oh yes…(sounds like the old Antonio Banderas skit from Saturday Night Live)…
Our son was on Provigil – to counter the “somnolence” from an atypical…I love that word – a fancy word used by pharma….I like to think of it as the side effect of “being so drugged-up you won’t be able to tie your shoes”….I wear boots most the time, so I guess that warning wouldn’t work too well for everyone….but, they outta use a term most of us use and understand in every day life “turns you into a zombie” would be good….
Anyway, Provigil is used for the “somnolence” of the atypical being used….
I love the way the NAMI Boys (that’s the new term I’ve coined for anyone who constanty references, quotes, cites big pharma “scientific” literature on psychotropics…..or, anyone who promotes “proper diagnosis and treatment” for mental illness, or anyone who wants to get the crazy uncle out of the attic so badly they call the TAC, and/or the local police to make sure he’s given “treatment”)….I really don’t like NAMI Boys….
Anyway, back to what the NAMI boys did….on one of the earlier “economic stimulus” packages (how many have we had now?…a trillion dollars here, another couple of trillion dollars here….I’m not an accoutant, but pretty soon, that adds up to real money….) I digress – the NAMI boys tacked on “parity” to one of the earlier stimulus bills, that became law when nobody was looking….
This means that soon insurance companies will have to pay for this entire scheme – the atypical, and the provigil to counter the “somnolence”, and this one, that one, and the other one….
One to counter the side effects of the first, one to counter the side effects of the second, a third to counter the side effects of the second, and a forth to counter the side effects of how the first one interferes with the third one….what a mess !!!!!!
And, none of them work….
That’s the real problem…
A news flash to the NAMI Boys:
“None of them work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
When our son was on Provigil, the retail cost was $500 dollars per month, and like so many on these “medications”….don’t you just love that (we still call them medications)….how bizarre is that!
Anyway, the retail price for the total cocktail was about $2,000 per month….We had insurance, but let’s just do some math….
If we keep having more and more people get on cocktails of drugs that run a couple of thousand dollars per month, then a couple of things are going to happen – private insurance will become unafordable – it has to….We can’t keep paying for this as a society….It’s not really tough math – nothing where you’d have to be a CPA to figure it out….It goes like this – It cost more to pay for the drugs than the private insurance company recieves in premiums – so, rates need to go up (out the friggin roof!!!!!!!), or private insurance goes by the way-side – one of the two…..
And, so maybe we switch to a nationalized plan…which, is likely what will happen (good, bad, or ugly), I think it has to happen, and will happen due to the scheme I just painted….Well, ain’t this gonna be great….Because Big Pharma may have likely had this in mind all-along….Let’s face it, if it goes to a gov’t system – Big Pharma gets a pretty sweet deal outta all of it….We get a data bank on who has what illnesses, and “standards of care” – If Johnny has “bipolar” than Johnny gets on Geodon, or one of the other drugs, and then Johnny gets on a cocktail of drugs….and, so do lots of Johnny’s friends….
And, everyone wins – Pharma, the bureacrats, everyone….
Except us.
The ones one the drugs.
A drug for this, another for that….One to counter the side effects of the first, a third to counter the side effects of the second…and, on and on, and on we go….
Becoming a drug-addicted nation….
But, thank God, we’ll have Provigil….
Wouldn’t want a lot of “somnolence” out there….
Or people who can no longer tie their shoes…
Zombies,
Duane