Generics, can they make you feel this bad?

Just posted a topic - Lustral v Generic (Sertraline) - but perhaps it would have been better here. It seems crazy to me that the generic versions seem to differ in some ways and may reverse many years of feeling good, but then the difference in price, £35 for Lustral as opposed to £8 for a generic, must mean something

I've just started on mine (Generic Sertraline) and am now worried that if in the future I can't get the same make it may affect me!!

Wow! Big price difference. No wonder we don't get lustral. I hope you get on ok with the generic setraline. If you start getting worse then you'll know why. Maybe go to the doctor and tell him/her. But I sincerely hope you will be fine. All the best.

Hi dinky_dee, yes it's an interesting subject re different brands, I too am following a couple of other threads that may interest you..

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/sertraline-what-brand-are-you-taking-right-now--337262

Hi dinky dee,

my husband has experienced similar to what you describe but some of his depression has been caused by his other medical conditions. 

If you can convince your GP to prescribe Lustral for 3 months to see how you manage  they may feel that its worth a try and be prepared to pay for the addt expense of this drug.

it might be then, that you may require an increase in the dose gradually to accomodate your symptoms. 

I hope you feel better soon but please persevere. 

Hi thanks for your response. I'm very reluctant to go back on it because of side effects etc. Makes my IBS much worse. I'm going back to the doctors today becuse i'm having at least one day a week where I just sit crying for most of the day. I get headaches everyday too, have done for the past 6months. 

Hi thanks, I'll check that out.

Hey Dude, good post.

It never ceases to amaze me how they play around with our health! From the first link you provided this paragraph is very interesting:

"Yet, although generics must have the same active ingredients as the brand-name product, (although with different release rates and differing allowed levels in the regs!!) they can include any number of different inactive ingredients (colorings, flavorings, binders, diluents, fillers, etc.) that can cause differences in how well a particular patient absorbs and tolerates a particular medication -- especially patients with allergies, sensitivities or gastrointestinal disease."

So really these so called "inactive" ingredients can be 'active' because they have an effect on some people. As you say it was the E132 colouring that affected you with the Lupin brand.... it does beg the question, why do they need a colouring or any other of the ingredience??

Another point is, let's assume someone starts with a generic that doesn't agree with them, that would surely mean their condition could become worse and 'never' get any better and this would be blamed on the medication, whereas if they'd been prescribed the non generic in the first place the whole situation could be very different! Indeed, how many of us on generics can tolerate the 'inactive' ingrediences with perhaps only a slight feeling of a niggleing side effect when in fact if we were prescribed the 'real thing' we would feel totally well?

It does make me question how good generics are and whether they should be prescribed in the first place!

Thanks for the swift reply, I thought it was good to share.

I cant say for definite that it was the colouring its just the only difference when looking at the ingredients list of both. I would need to test if I had an alergic reaction to e132. I have feeling its more likely to be composition and thus release rates. We get the ingredients but dont know the full recipe.

Lupin put the colouring in to tell the difference between their 100mg (yellow) and 50mg (blue). Still seems pointless adding it in though.

It does seem like something that needs more research.

The other brand I have had was Bristol, again an adjustment but ok.

in reply to your last paragraph I have a feeling thats what happens to a lot of people. I thought the difference between fluoxetine and sertraline was that sertraline was better but it could have been just the generic form of fluoxetine or both i dunno.

see cite note 5 on here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sertraline

P.s the la times link takes you straight to page 2 of the report.

Hi, I too had a dreadful experience with a 'blue' generic Sertraline several years ago and I'll never forget it!  Within 2 days of going back on Lustral my symptoms had more or less gone but it left me shattered and took me months to recover those two weeks of hell.  The reason I'm on this forum now is that today my pharmacist gave me Lustral as she has been doing for years and years, but something isn't right!  The box says Lustral and it seems legit but the spelling of Pfizer is wrong, and the box is a weird shape.....I opened it and the foil sheets with the tablets state Aremis 50mg.  Manufactured by some place in Spain and repackaged by Waymade PLC. I phoned Pfizer and they said they would look into it.  I'll phone them back tomorrow.  It really worries me when you read about counterfeit meds going around - this is very serious stuff!  I'll let you know what comes of this...I just wanted to tell people to really be on their guard with generic medication for depression in particular.

This is very odd!! I googled 'Aremis' and found the information leaflet which stated this:

Aremis 100mg Tablets/

Sertraline 100mg Tablets/

Lustral 100mg Tablets

(sertraline hydrochloride)

Your medicine is known by either of the above names, but will be referred to as Lustral throughout this:

Patient Information Leaflet..

IMO this is very misleading, these tablets are Sertraline not Aremis tablets and for the leaflet to refer to them as Lustral seems totally wrong, Lustral is the trade name!!

As I recall all generic tablets are labeled with the drugs name, ie Sertraline made by Accord, Lupin etc not by some other name like Aremis!!

Yes please call Pfizer and let us know the outcome as it seems very fishy!!

Hi Blu02 Thanks for responding to my post and I completely agree with you.  I'm about to phone them now and will get back to you.  I spent a very anxious night, worrying that I may not be able to source 'genuine' Lustral any more and any hint of counterfiet meds is not cool.

I phoned Pfizer and the woman was very helpful indeed I must say.  She gave me a case number,  advised me to return the drug to the pharmacist and ask her/him to contact Pfizer.  Also advised me to stop taking this drug, phone my gp for another script  and find a source locally who will issue the 'genuine article'    All of the above will be done today and I can't tell you how relieved I am.  This makes me mad though...I've heard from so many people who's drugs ''don't work as well as they used to '' or have stopped working altogether and I would put money on it that it's because of the inconsistency in generics.  For months, years ago, my doc put me on generic Sertraline - a different brand every time!  It was the little blue ones which really rocked the boat though.  I'll dig them out (they were so bad I kept them!) and tell you the name - think they were manufactured in India.  It's shocking.  I'll keep you posted Blu02.  I hope you are well yourself.

Interesting she said to stop taking this drug "and find a source locally who will issue the 'genuine article'" which would appear to indicate Aremis is a fake in some respects!!

Yes I agree with you when you mention about drugs not working as well as they used too, there's much debate about that subject on this forum..

It will be interesting to know the brand name of the Sertraline that gave you real problems. The pharmacy switched my brand once to Bristol and they set me back a few days with side effect until I got my usual Accord brand! Unfortunately the GP here didn't prescribe Lustral when I first went.. wish he had because I believe they are the best to take with the least side effects.

Sertraline have helped me immensely and I feel like my old self again now 😃

Please do let us know the outcome of this, it's very interesting.

Keep well my friend 😃

Hi Blu02  Sorry it's taken so long to reply to your post - for some reason, I never receive notification of replies via email.  I looked for the original 'horror' brand packet of Sertraline, which caused utter misery for me years ago - it was SO appauling that I vowed to keep the packet - but I can't find it.  I do remember they were manufactured in India or Pakistan though and were blue.  I'm glad you are feeling better.  As I mentioned in an earlier post today, once more I was given Aremis this time from Boots.  I immediately phoned the pharmacist and she apologised, saying that Lustral will be delivered tomorrow to the shop.  Fine, but what worries me is the packaging of Aremis, which masquerades as Lustral - as I said before, almost identical but bigger box and incorrect spelling of Pfizer....once you get inside, it is so obviously NOT Lustral. I think this is an outrage actually.  I phoned Pfizer again today, as I didn't really get a satisfactory answer the last time and they told me the problems with parallel imports.  They could not vouch for Aremis.  So advised me to insist again on Lustral. No exceptions.  So, if we insist our docs write the specific brand on our scrip, then the pharmacist is duty bound to provide it....if they can't, find another chemist.  Good luck Blu02 with your progress.