Hullo Pat,
I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through all this. I can truly sympathize, luv. My pdoc just retired and referred me to a new pdoc, with whom the personal chemistry isn't precisely brilliant -- but I'm willing to give him some time. My new pdoc, despite promising to my now-retired old pdoc that he wouldn't, radically changed all my meds during the second session. There was no discussion about it, which is what I'd been used to -- it was dictatorial. So suddenly I found myself on off-label use taking Gabitril. I did some research, and discovered that while some tests (almost all by the big pharma manufacturer) indicate that it may help anxiety, the FDA itself has been issuing repeated admonitions AGAINST such off-label use (the bloody stuff is actually supposed to be used ONLY by epileptics). Tests have shown that Gabitril can actually INDUCE seizures and convulsions in people like me who have never had them before. The FDA even required the manufacturer to place a LARGE warning on the label earlier this year about the danger. I informed the new pdoc about this, and he was dumbfounded. I showed him printouts of my online research and of journal articles. It took me about 15-20 minutes online to find all this out -- and this bloke has a sodding medical degree?? Strewth! I told him I refused to take it because of the danger, and that he was courting a massive malpractice suit by continuing to give Gabitril to other bipolar and depressed patients despite the FDA's explicit warning not to do this. For the FDA to issue such a warning, the possibility of non-epileptic psychiatric patients suffering a seizure must be fairly severe -- let's face it, the FDA is mostly a paper tiger in the pocket of big pharma (they're the people who greenlighted Vioxx, after all, among other things). So after much wrangling, I'm back to my original antidepressant and anti-anxiety meds and mood stabilizers. Jesus wept! The ignorance of the man! I went into a suicidal depression and a near hospitalization because of his ill-advised med change!I'm sorry you have been put through a similar wringer, Pat, and I'm glad you're feeling better. I simply don't understand the psychiatric profession sometimes. It really leaves me gobsmacked. Cheshire Cat