The brand name Prozac was the first SSRI I took. It worked so well, I was able to completely overcome the anxieties that had plagued me.

Unfortunately, it has not been effective for several years. It's a really long story, but I tried many different SSRI's only to find the original to work better than the others I tried, after being away from it for awhile.

What I mean by not effective enough, is that I'm barely able to function, but before returning to the brand name, I was practically housebound.

It's a really long story, but I can't start a thread to post my full story until I've replied to several posts, according to the forum rules.

I originally took Prozac when I first started medication and it didn't really work for me. The doctor then mixed Prozac and Effexor XR together and I actually seemed to do pretty well for a while. My insurance then decided that it was too expensive to pay for the brand name and switched me to the generic brand, Fluoxintine.
While taking it I began to experience horrible tremors all over my body, first starting out in just small jitters where I just couldn't sit still but then escelating to getting so bad that it felt that everything is my body was shaking. When I brought it up to my doctor, she said that I was just looking for attention and that I could stop it any time that I could. I asked her to fight the insurance company to see if I could get back on Prozac but she wouldn't... I eventually weened myself off of the medication and changed doctors.

well,i was on fluoxetine till march when i decided to quit cold turkey(v.bad idea!)then i went back on it after a month so have been on it about 6 months this time and i never got the same brand twice,i got some ok generic,some which gave me heartburn,then the last one i got made me constipated and i put on 7lb in 2 weeks plus i kept being sick.i saw the gp today and after being assured im not pregnant(!)she gave me a prescription for brand prozac.ive never had 'real' prozac before,i feel spaced out and can hardly keep my eyes open,i dont know what on earth is going on!

Hi: Did you eventually get back on the brand name Prozac and do you still find it better than generic?

Karen

I have never taken brand name Prozac. My doc started me out on the genaric fluoxetine because she said that she hasn't seen much difference in her patients and its only $4 for a months supply. I have been on it for 5 months and have had no problems with the genaric. I feel much better and life seems like it is much more approachable.

Hi,

I am currently on 80mg of brandname prozac and want to
switch to generic. My pdoc says it is not as good but I was
wondering if I could do this and get the same result. I would like to
reduce my prozac to 60mg because I am so tired all the time
so I was wondering if 80mg of generic would be equivalent
to 60mg brandname? Does this make sense to anyone? I
read somewhere that generics only have to be 80% effective
as the brandname so I thought that switching to the generic
might still be all I need. My co-pay is $50/mo for the brandname
and I am on a total of 4 meds so it gets costly. Thanks for
any insight.

best wishes,
starr

This is a very sticky area - a lot of people I know say that when they changed to another generic brand of fluoxetine it stoppped being effective, in fact I noted on one site that over 100 people in america complained that their insurance company would only pay for the cheapest brand of Prozac (Fluoxetine) and it was being ineffective for all of them. They were taking a law suite aginst the insurance companies for making them depressed. They wanted the branded version of Prozac and not any generic brand. Prozac being about 5 times more expensive per box.

Other people I know have no problem with any generic brand - and in reality thet must all pass the FDA approval for effectiveness.? So some people have very sensative brains??



Jim Bow

hi new to all this and meds but i have been on gen. prozak for about a month now the real stuff befor that i felt no diff. they work the same on me but every body,s body may react diff. i know the welbutrine made me worse thats why i went bake to prozak and tried the gen. kind

Hi,

I found there at at least 6 generic brands of Generic Prozac. Some are very cheap from India and Brand Prozac is the most expensive. I have had teo realy bad experiences on Generic so I switched to Brand Prozac.


Jim Bow