okay, i admit i suffer from some paranoid thoughts at times, sometimes a lot of times, whihc brought me here cause i need help......

the situation is, i normally take 3 Dizaepams (generic for Valuim) at 10mg a day everyday - that's how it's prescribed to me.

i have been taking it like this for years with pretty good success.

i was running low on my meds and called my Pdoc several times (once last week, twice this week) to set an appointment to talk about how i'm feeling with my depression, anxiety, PTSD symtoms and get re-fils on my meds. but i still haven't heard back from my Pdoc. being low on my meds, i decided to have my pharmacy call my Pdoc for a new script for me, just in case i couldn't get in to see my Pdoc before my meds ran out.

my Pdoc approved the new script for my Dizaepam, but when i picked it up, the pharmacy told me the pills may look different cause it's a different manufacter. right away i was suspious, why after all the years of taking the same pills from the same manufacter did it change? i know that happens sometimes, but what i was told later after getting the script, added to my suscpions.....

i got home and i typed in the pill info on the net and came up with only 2 hits that said it was diazapem, so i was still suspious.

to add to that, i called the pharmacy, asking if there was any risk in taking a new pill from a new manufacter? casue i'm so nervous about taking new meds. they said no, unless i was allergic to dyes (like my old pill was green, now it's blue) and then he went on to say that the majority of the pill was made up of sugar.

wait! SUGAR??? hearing "sugar" set my paranoid thoughts into over-drive as i suspected it was possibly a placebo pill to begin with, cause i don't understand the sudden change after taking the same exact pill from the same manufacter for diazepam. was it possible i was perscribed a Placebo pill? and is that even possible for a doc and/or pharmacy to do?

so i asked the pharmiscist point plank if it was a placebo after he mentioned the pill is made up of sugar.

he said no, but that there's sugar in it to create the pill, since the actual milligram per pill is so small, so they add sugars to form a pill

Hmmm, something doesn't sound right about that. i never heard of that before and am hesistent to take the medication.

i'm no pharmicist, but i never heard that about pills being made of sugar to make up for the low about of milligrams. sounds suspicious to me

i really need to take my diazepam, but don't want to take this med until i know for sure what it actually is!

help! is that true about sugar being in pills? or am i right in my suspecions? i don't know what to do???

and say it really is Diazepam, is it safe to take from another manufecter? are there any differences in the same med bu that are from different manufactuers?

This post has been edited by she_is_suffering: Sep 10 2008, 02:40 PM

Most medications have inert materials (like sugar) added to the actual drug to form pills. The additives do not change the actual dose of the medication. Different manufacturers make generic pills in different colors. It's not unusual. I take several generics and from experience, the pills do come in different colors depending on where they come from, the effect is the same. You can always go to the library and read what the Physician's Desk Reference says about the generic. It will also say the pill contains inert ingredients which are not harmful. Your new med is safe; otherwise, you would not be given it by the pharmacy.

The only way you would get a placebo is if you participated in a research program. Your med is the same as you usually take.
Sheepwoman

Take the pill, it's real.

Think of a sheet of paper, it weighs 4.5g

They have to bulk the pills up with something or we'd be licking the heads of pins to get our dose.

This made me laugh - it's brilliant!! and if we have inco-ordination and blurred vision, imagine how we'd struggle to even locate the pins!

It's highly unlikely that you would have been prescribed placebo - 30mg valium/day is a pretty stiff dose and I'm sure you'd notice the placebo. Yes, I work in pharmaceutics, there may well be sugar in the pill, but that does not mean it's just a "sugar pill" or placebo; like everyone else said, it's a bulking agent, that's all.

No placebo. I dont think docs could get away with this legally !!!!

Its probably just a generic version like someone else said.

Yes, different manufacturers do make the same medications, and they look different. My boyfriend and I are both on citalopram, same dosage (well, until my dosage got changed last week), and our pills look different. I get mine generic from the drug store, he gets his generic through a mail-order pharmacy.