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Joe Zealberg, a psychiatrist in Charleston, S.C., prescribed generic drugs to patients for years and almost never had problems -- until last year. A troop of patients who had done very thoroughly cooked on brand-name medications "crashed and burned" when they switched to generics, he says.

One missus "went from being quite fine to crying inconsolably 24 hours a day" after she switched from one generic antidepressant to another, Dr. Zealberg says. Another compliant was sold a generic version of his acclaim-deficit drug that contained no identifying markings whatsoever -- a breaching of federal rules.

Ten of his patients switched to a new generic rendition of the antidepressant Wellbutrin, but eight of them changed backwards, saying they felt ardent or shaky or their depression had returned. Some complained that the generic panacea had a bad smell, he says.

Generic medications fool been a boon to consumers almost the world, allowing millions to buy lifesaving drugs for pennies a day. http://louis2j2sheehan.blogspot.com/
Some 65% of all prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. are for generics, yet they account for only 20% of the dollars prostrate, according to the Generic Pharmaceutical Fellowship.

While there is no hard facts of growing problems from generics, consumers and physicians are increasingly perturbed as cost pressures push more patients away from label-name drugs. At the same heyday, the globalization of pharmaceutical manufacturing has revealed regulatory lapses.

By law, generics obligated to have the same active ingredient and the identical action as the brand-name manifestation, which allows them to piggyback on the unprecedented safety and efficacy trials. But generics do acquire different inactive ingredients, which can strike how they are absorbed into the fullness. Generics can produce blood levels as much as 20% lower than beneath or 25% above that of the earliest drug and still be considered "bioequivalent," according to Sustenance and Drug Administration guidelines.

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