where in wisconsin do you live??? i also live in wisconsin, just outside of milwaukee. i'm sure dutchess will answer your questions when she has time, but i can tell you that adderall is NOT an energy replacement drug. you should really talk to your PC dr. about your iron levels and maybe vitamin B12 shots. i also have very low energy (from a blood transfusion) and my dr. thinks its from my iron being really low, but before i had th blood transfusion my iron was normal. at that time he was giving me the B12 shots and they really helped alot.

luv ya,
tink  :)

Pexeva is the same drug as Paxil, just like alprazolam is the same as xanax. Generic drugs are no different than the brand name drugs except for inactive ingredients. Patents on drugs are similar to music. If you change the tone of one beat, it is not considered copyright infringement. So with Pexeva and Paxil the only difference is an inactive salt that is part of the active ingredient (paroxetine). The brand name drug Paxil contains paroxetine hydrochloride where Pexeva contains paroxetine mesylate. As I mentioned before, this is an inactive part of the drug, the salts get separated in the stomach before absorption into the bloodstream takes place so what is getting into your bloodstream is paroxetine. So your psychiatrist may have been mistaken or possible misunderstanding, I would definitely call and clarify because there is absolutely NO difference in paxil and pexeva, the same drug is going into the bloodstream, those inactive salts are just kind of like what holds the drug together as a whole in pill form, a "glue" so to speak that goes no further than your stomach. Stomach acid destroys the one difference in the two drugs before it gets to the small intestine where it is absorbed into the blood stream. I have no idea why your doctor would have told you that.

And no I never recommend Adderall to patients for energy, it is FDA approved for the treatment of ADD and ADHD. This would be a bad idea. Adderall is just a collection of amphetamines that increase dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (adrenaline). It is often abused by college students and working mothers as well as Ritalin. It is meant for those who are lacking in dopamine and norepi. causing them to not be able to focus, can't sit still, can't pay attention etc. If your dopamine and norepi levels are normal this gives you a large increase in energy similar to cocaine as cocaine increases dopamine. If you do not have normal dopamine and/ or norepinephrine levels and this is the cause of your lack of energy this would explain why the paxil has not had any results. What you should ask your doctor about are SNRI's (Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors)- this could work well for you since you have such a lack of energy but I would bet that dopamine is involved and not just norepinephrine. SNDRI's (Serotonin, Norepinephrine, Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitors) are not yet on the market but are in clinical trials right now so there are also tricyclic antidepressants which increase all three monoamine neurotransmitters also (serotonin-dopamine-norepi.) Elavil is a very popular tricyclic antidepressant and were the most popular prior to the SSRI's since the SSRI's are so selective as to which receptor sites it is working at they have less side effects and takes much more to be fatal than the tricyclics. The downside is that not many people have only one neurotransmitter involved in depression or anxiety or OCD etc. So the tricyclics may be a good choice for you, if the paxil has not made any difference at all, that does not necessarily mean that serotonin is not involved it ould just mean that a different drug will work better for you. Also, SSRI's can actually reduce the amount of dopamine the body produces. If you were not lacking energy prior to taking Paxil this is a very real possibility. Stimulation of your serotonin 2 &3 receptor sites causes a decrease in the dopamine released by the substantia nigra-this is a tiny area of the brain that is tightly packed with dopamine producing neurons. This could very easily be responsible in part for your lack of energy.

Oh and by the way my name is Monique, I live in Southern California, born and raised in Bel Air. My grandmother (mother's side) is from the UK, she's English, a direct descendant of Queen Victoria (hence my screen name). She was a doctor (ob/gyn) she delivered me.

Please get back to me b/c it doesn't sound like your psychiatrist has been taking very good care of your symptoms, maybe you just need to talk to him about some other alternatives but DO NOT let him try to walk all over you just because he had a medical degree, you know your rights as a patient and he knows what kind of trouble he can get into if he is being negligent of a patient.

xoxo- D.

...... like Tink mentioned, you should get your iron levels checked too. A lack of iron and B5 can cause a lack of energy. It is probably not just one thing that is causing this so you should talk to your psychiatrist about other meds which will increase dopamine and also eat lots of foods high in iron and vitamin B5 until you get your levels checked, it can't hurt. A lot of people in here have RLS and a lack of iron has been shown to be responsible for many RLS cases and eating foods very high in iron especially close to bedtime has been really helpful to a lot of patients suffering from RLS.

xoxo-D.