Australia changes Xanax to schedule 8

[[Ro...]]

Latest information - alprazolam

Audience:

All (6)      Health professionals (0)      Consumers (6)

Content type: 

Alprax Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Alprax Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Alprax Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

GenRx Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – GenRx Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use GenRx Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Kalma Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Kalma Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Kalma Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Medicine brands that contain alprazolam

 

Alprax Tablets

Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets

Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets

GenRx Alprazolam Tablets

Kalma Tablets

Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets

 

atest information - alprazolam

Audience:

All (6)      Health professionals (0)      Consumers (6)

Content type: 

Alprax Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Alprax Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Alprax Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

GenRx Alprazolam Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – GenRx Alprazolam Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use GenRx Alprazolam Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Kalma Tablets

(Medicine)

04 Feb 2014 – Kalma Tablets is a brand of medicine containing the active ingredient alprazolam. Find out about side effects, who can take it and who shouldn’t use Kalma Tablets by reading the latest Australian consumer medicine information, plus tips on how to use medicines wisely and safely.

Medicine brands that contain alprazolam

 

Alprax Tablets

Alprazolam Sandoz Tablets

Chemmart Alprazolam Tablets

GenRx Alprazolam Tablets

Kalma Tablets

Terry White Chemists Alprazolam Tablets

 

[[Ro...]]

What have I done now???

 

I was trying to help people who might be concerned. I looked that info up for myself ages ago - that's why I was able to post it straight away.

Very helpful Xana I also have been doing research myself we are pretty much on the same wave length. I think if you look at all the generic brands they have the same inactive ingredients plus 2or 3 extra. You have gone to a lot of trouble to be helpful to members that might need this information.

 

Thank you

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Thanks for putting that list up Ronnie. I was feeling too depressed today to bother looking as I had planned to do. That's saved me a heap of time. I will copy that list. I know I tried Kalma, many years ago when we were on holidays and the pharmacy had run out of Xanax. I was sure they didn't work as well but you don't know if it's psychological or not. I also had one lot of the Sandoz ones once for the same reason.

 

I didn't know that the pharmacies had their own concoctions.

 

When I discovered you could buy the original Valium (when i was doing my taper) I switched from the cheaper brand of diazepam I was using. The benefit was that the 'real' Valium was much firmer and easier to cut accurately.

 

I am getting a bit obsessive about checking where things are made. Last week I noticed that Panadeine Forte are now made in India! I have always chosen the originals (for fibro pain) and paid the extra price. I'm sure they used to be made here. I found that the generic I had refused is made in India too and the only brand that is made in Oz isn't sold by my pharmacy. Just for a laugh (ha, ha) I checked my BP tabs. They are made in Sweden but PACKED IN CHINA! Good grief! They must ship buckets of them over for cheap packing!

 

Once again - thanks! 

[[Ch...]]

Hi Xana,

 

Interesting about your brand name valium tablets being firmer and easier to cut. I found it the other way around with my benzo (i.e. serax), the generics were firmer whereas the brand name ones were crumbly. Oh listen to me, sounds like I'm comparing fruit, lol.

 

I didn't know that about panadol! Here in Canada it's called tylenol. Do you know where I could find out where it's made? I take it to help manage my oseto pain. Like you I always buy the originals.

 

Good sleuthing!

 

Chinook 

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Hi Chinookwind,

 

Ha, ha! Does sound like you are a chef!

 

I forgot that in the US it's called tylenol.

 

I don't know about the plain Panadol as I don't have any here but I will have a look when I am shopping. I have a generic one which is distributed by Aspen in Australia. Plain paracetamol (panadol) does nothing for me so there's no point taking it. 'Panadeine Forte' is a prescribed drug and is composed of 500mg paracetamol (tylenol) and 30mg codeine. I take one in the morning when i am most sore.

 

When I run out and can't be bothered to go to the doc, I use an OTC blend (now I sound like a wine maker) which is 500mg paracetamol and 15mg codeine.I proposed the theory to a pharmacist that it would be better to take the prescribed Panadeine Forte, than doubling the paracetamol by taking 2 tabs of the OTC one. More work for the liver. He agreed and told me (on 2 occasions) that taking less than 30mg codeine is a waste of time as it is no more useful than paracetamol. My doc did not agree but then I happened to see the same comment in some medical article I was reading.

 

Nurofen Plus (Nurofen and codeine) is made in the UK from local and imported ingredients. I have those here but have only taken 2 tabs in the past year as people using certain antihypertensive drugs should not use them. My doc said I can occasionally.

 

There has been a big crackdown here on OTC codeine mix tabs. Basically because people have abused them and are consuming huge quantities daily. They have targeted the codeine because it is addictive but it is actually the paracetamol which is bad for the liver in large amounts. And you can get that anywhere. In supermarkets etc (as well as the Nurofen which has its own set of problems).

 

As I am having dodgy liver function issues at the moment I asked my doc last week if I should stop the Panadeine Forte completely. I've stopped before but my mornings especially are way worse. He absolutely swore to me that the small amount I take would not hurt me at all - even when I said I sometimes take extra at night when the burning tongue and overall aching etc gets to me.

 

Well, that was a long winded answer to a short question! Sorry.

 

You have to look very closely at the packaging to work out where drugs are made. If it isn't clear I google the distributor and usually find an email address or a contact link for questions. Sounds obsessive but I did see an article during my searching about Britain not importing drugs from one Indian company because glass was found in some pills! My daughter bought some aspirin in the supermarket years ago. I saw it was made in India and took it back. The girl who gave me a refund was shocked. Not so shocking these days. 

 

Xana

[[Ch...]]

Hi Xana,

 

Don't be sorry. I do long winded too! LOL.

 

Thanks for the information. It's awesome the way you research things, I wish I had your focus.

 

I'm sorry about your liver function issues. Was it detected as part of routine testing or have you been feeling unwell?

That got me thinking that maybe I should get my liver enzymes checked too. I've been taking panadol every day for longer than I can remember.

The ones I take are extra strength (i.e. 500mg) and I'm careful never to exceed the daily limit, the most I'd take in any given day is two or three, but I wonder if they build up to toxic levels or something?

I wish I didn't have to take anything and some days I manage okay but I don't think living with chronic pain is very productive.

I'm sorry about your fibromyalgia. At least I get a reprieve form my pain (osteo) but I think the pain from fibro is unrelenting and I don't know how you manage that.

It seems not too long ago I was in pretty robust good health and the concept of living with pain was a foreign one to me, and now I understand only too well what it's like to have it as a constant companion.

 

Try and stay cool! Is it hot where you are? My friend in Queensland says it's close to 40 degrees over there. If I could package up some of this frigid cold we're having (-37 with the windchill yesterday morning) I'd gladly send it to you!

 

Feel better soon, and thanks.

 

Chinook

 

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That got me thinking that maybe I should get my liver enzymes checked too. I've been taking panadol every day for longer than I can remember.

The ones I take are extra strength (i.e. 500mg) and I'm careful never to exceed the daily limit, the most I'd take in any given day is two or three, but I wonder if they build up to toxic levels or something?

 

It's probably a good idea for everyone over 50 (I have no idea how old you are) to have general blood tests once per year especially if they are taking any medication. This was what my Mum's doctor told me a couple of weeks ago anyway. (She is 94 and I accompany her to her many visits - he was giving her a request for blood tests). I have been getting tested for many years (except for the last couple when I was relying on my psych for about 18months to provide me with all prescriptions and didn't want to go to my GP).

 

The liver enzymes profile always seems to be on the normal pathology request form. As I mentioned I specifically asked my GP about using paracetamol at all as it is well known for being hard on the liver. He said you would have to take 9g per day to cause damage (I will ask him again as that sounds awfully high). That would be 18 of your pills! The guideline on the box is no more than 8 tabs per day of any of the paracetamol products, so that would be 4g.

 

I certainly would never in my life have taken that many - or perhaps once or twice when I used to suffer from killer migraines which fortunately  seem to have gone. Touch wood.

 

You mentioned that the tabs you take are extra strength at 500mg paracetamol. I just checked every box of paracetamol mix or plain generic paracetamol lurking up in the back of my pantry (out of reach of the kids - ha, ha - they are all grown up, left home and all tower above me!). They all have 500mg paracetamol in each tablet.

 

I'm sorry about your liver function issues. Was it detected as part of routine testing or have you been feeling unwell?

 

My liver enzymes have been slightly elevated for as long as I can remember but recently they have gone higher and my ferritin stores are too high as well. I have had the haemocromatosis gene test which was negative. Next job is getting a liver ultrasound. I have the request form but haven't made a booking. A bit scared.

 

I have been feeling unwell and tired but I have been feeling like that for nearly 21 years (to be exact - 21yrs on 14th Feb - a joyful celebration for Valentine's Day) so it is hard to tell.

 

I drink hardly any alcohol any more so it isn't that. I'll just have to wait and see what the doc figures out. It is most probably Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (oh how I love that name - NOT) which 1 in 5 people have apparently. They often don't know it because it doesn't produce symptoms. It is associated strongly with obesity but not all sufferers are overweight. I am, but I haven't put on weight in the last few years so I don't know what is going on.

 

Try and stay cool! Is it hot where you are? My friend in Queensland says it's close to 40 degrees over there. If I could package up some of this frigid cold we're having (-37 with the windchill yesterday morning) I'd gladly send it to you!

 

Thanks!  Your friend may live inland where temperatures have been very high. Thankfully we (on the coast) have been having a glorious February. Nothing over 30degrees in the day and cool at night. I don't think I've had a swim in the pool since Christmas. Disgustingly lazy. I usually hate February as it is usually VERY hot and VERY humid. I can tolerate hot but hate that sweaty humidity. Our forecast is that it is going to hot up soon! We haven't used air conditioners yet. When we turned them on one hot day, we found that the big one is dead. (Cost us $125 to find out that - gotta love those bills!)

 

I don't think I'd like -37 very much! I might decline that kind offer!

 

Xana

[[Ch...]]

Hi Xana,

 

Happy Valentine's Day or did you celebrate it yesterday? I keep forgetting you're in Tomorrow over there, being about 18 hours ahead of us here in western Canada.

I'm so sorry that suffering so badly and for such a long time with the fibro is something you've had to endure for all these years.

It's awful to have to accept pain as part of one's landscape.

 

I'll probably get my liver enzymes checked too, so thanks for that suggestion. A few years ago I had an ultrasound of my lower abdomen (due to unexplained hematuria) and there was a lesion discovered in my liver but the radiologist didn't seem overly concerned about it.

I wonder if it was that Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease you mention although in my case it would be alcoholic because I was a binge drinker although I haven't drank in 5 years.

Anyway please get the ultrasound done, I know it's stressful but not nearly so much as not knowing.

 

My friend is on the coast too, she lives near Bundaberg. Is that close to you? She's sent me some photos and it's all so gorgeous and amazing!

I hope to get over there for a visit before too long. I also have a friend in New Zealand who I'd love to meet, she was one of my biggest supporters when I decided to come off benzos.

I "met" her on a website I joined when my cat was diagnosed with chronic renal failure, it was a great help having somewhere to go where I could learn about the disease that would ultimately take my poor boy's life. She and I both lost our boys to crf but we became very good friends.

She is a marathoner and I doubt very much if she's ever taken a benzo in her life but I told her my story and she supported me 100% of the way, never doubting me and never being critical of me for a lifestyle that was very different from her own. She was and is Love & Acceptance.

So, my dream is to go over there to NZ unannounced when she runs the Rotorua Marathon which she does every year, and I would like to be there for her to cheer her on and maybe if I can even get myself in half decent shape, osteoporosis and all, I would love to run that last km with her, just as she did for me when I did my own marathon.

 

Hope you have a gentle day!

 

Chinook

 

 

[[...]]

Hi there!

 

Thanks for that nice post to start my day. I am at our island (other) home right this minute, looking over the water.

 

We actually live in bushland on just over 2 acres of forest but are a short drive to the ocean.

 

Thanks for the Valentine's wish. Hope you have a good one too. It was yesterday for us.

 

Your friend sounds awesome. Rare to have such support. Bundaberg is 400km (4hr drive) up the coast from us. I've been there. It is famous for its beach, Mon Repos, where everyone goes to watch turtle hatchlings emerging from their eggs and scuttling down to the ocean. I want to see that. We went to the beach but it was the wrong time of year.

 

I haven't traveled much at all really - large family, little cash and illness  - but we did go to New Zealand a few years ago. Discovered I had flying phobia but conquered that quickly. Rotarua was one of the most amazing places we visited. I was absolutely fascinated by it. I'd love to go back. New Zealand is a very beautiful place. We saw a lot of it in a short time. The South Island is wild and wonderful. It's so close to us (the only place that is!)

 

Re liver enzymes - when I was drinking way more than now they were not anywhere near as high as now. I have never been an 'every day drinker' but I drank heavily socially when I was young and even up to the last couple of years I would drink way too much at social functions like weddings and parties etc. I was taking Xanax too. I admitted my habits to my doc and he said I could drink a bottle of wine in an evening with no probs. (My pious eldest son said that was 'binge drinking' - hmm, I think he used to drink a lot more than that!) There were A LOT of engagements and weddings at one stage!

 

Very, very sore this morning as I danced last night after dinner. I know I will pay dearly. Rock music seems to have a strange curative effect on hip and leg pain and burning mouth syndrome. My hips and legs are burning and I am actually hobbling like a 90  100 year old. I could hardly walk up the 33 steps up to our apartment. Proud that I only drank water! Definitely going to get a physio assessment soon. It's easy to assume EVERYTHING is fibro when it might be something else.

 

My doc told me about the sort of ultrasound they do on livers now. The ordinary ones do not show much because they basically can only check the outside. So now they 'vibrate' it (the mind boggles). If it is like jelly, that is good. If it is more rigid, it means that it has some scarring etc. That's the SIMPLE description he gave me.

 

I've been very busy tending to my Mum's various old age issues, so I have put my own things I need sorted on the back burner. (Easy excuse.) Even my hair as got some disgusting regrowth. Gotta get your priorities right here!

 

I hope you have a gentle day too. I will think of your temperatures if I start to man about the heat on the beach!

 

Xana 

 

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A TALE OF MY FIRST PROCUREMENT OF ALPRAZOLAM (Xanax) AFTER RECENT NEW SCHEDULING

 

Hi Fellow Aussies!

 

I said earlier that I would report back on my first experience of filling a prescription of alprazolam (Xanax) since the stronger scheduling came in early this month. Here is my story.

 

I had foolishly let myself run out of supply because I was waiting for my new Health Care Card to come through, which gives me reduced payment. Fellow Aussies will know the frustration of anything to do with dealing with dear old Centrelink so you will also know that waiting for the card to come was unwise.

 

Yesterday morning I realised my old remains of the .25mg real Xanax was only 3 tabs - .25 less than my usual morning dose. No worries. I would be fine until lunch time.

 

My fibro was having a field day on me (aching BADLY all over, burning mouth and just feeling 'off') after 2 days of physical and mental stress I sometimes feel  caring for my dearly loved, but declining, 94 year old Mum. So my kind hubs offered to pick up the new supply as he was off on his trip of jobs for the morning.

 

Yes, he knew which pharmacy I usually go to. (You can go anywhere here in Oz - a different one every time if you wish - no assignment of GPs or pharmacists.) Yes, he knew it was Alprax I had chosen after Pfizer pulled its Xanax provision out of the market. All good. No worries.

 

Then I had some 'discussions' on here which made my heart thump and my face burn (could my body actually notice that .25mg drop in a matter of hours?) or do I now have extremely low tolerance to stress? Then the text message came. Hubs had already been to the aforementioned, much loved (NOT) Centrelink and was at a pharmacy I never go to and they only had Kalma brand but it was made here in our own capital city but he was going to where I'd said to get the one I wanted.

 

At this point I was feeling so bad (may or may not have been drug related) so I didn't really care if the stuff had been made in the back streets of Mumbai at this point and basically told him this. I must have conveyed a tiny bit of anxiety via text message as, when he came home, he said he'd seen an ambulance close to our home and had been worried it might have been for me.

 

Hmm... I'm not one to be that panicked. I have never seen the inside of an ambulance (touch wood) and the only times I've called one have been for his fall off the roof and when someone ran over my teenage son while he was lying on grass. I have done lots of the crying hysterically to the point of seemingly no return (mostly when in withdrawal) and that sort of thing but have never gone to the ER. That must have been one scary text message!

 

But I digress... home the dear man came with the bottle (no blister pack - not impressed but my mouth firmly closed).

 

I took twice my usual lunchtime dose (1mg rather than .5) as I thought my BP would probably be high enough to blow off the top of my head. I noticed the tabs were a rather brighter shade of mauve than Xanax - pretty.

 

When I calmed down I asked if there had been any dramas, given I had heard rumours of handwritten scripts being required (it wasn't), signatures etc etc. No. No dramas. All the pharmacist did was ask my date of birth and tell my husband that under the new scheduling the prescriptions were only valid for 6 months rather than 12 months as they were previously. My usual pharmacist has told me they will be a bit more expensive due to the 'paperwork' whatever that is.

 

I had never purchased Xanax or Valium (or any other prescription for that matter) from that pharmacy. And I wasn't even picking it up for myself. They only had 1 bottle of the 50 tabs but said more stocks were coming on Monday and we could pick the other bottle then. I get 100 tabs per script (1.5mg per day - approximately 1 month's worth). This usually costs me $6 ($9 for the now long lost Xanax) but as my card has STILL not been processed, he had to pay $13.20.

 

The little purple cheapies worked a treat and last night we came up the coast and went for dinner and dancing to a band at our favourite place. As mentioned in my previous post to Chinookwind, I truly believe loud rock music does something good for the pain receptors (no alcohol involved in this process). It's a pity it doesn't last to the morning after.

 

I just told my husband I was writing about my first experience with Schedule 8. He told me an added twist to the story. After he had been texting me, sitting outside the pharmacy at Donut King, he went back in to get the previously refused Kalmas only to find that the script was nowhere to be seen. He raced back to the table to find it empty. Visions of how he was going to get me some tabs, after my frantic text message, were flashing through his head. Poor man. Luckily the table cleaner had picked it up and put it on the counter. Whew!

 

So that was my Valentine's Day.

 

Xana

[Guest [to...]]

OMG after all that struggle and you are still going to stay on the drug?   The more addicted/dependent the brain becomes to the drug the less stress the body can handle. 

 

 

There is far more effective treatment for "fibromyalgia" these days that doesnt include addictive drugs. There is plenty of support available for people to come off their benzos in Australia and live normal pain free lives.

[[Zz...]]

I thought it was legal

[[Ro...]]

I thought it was legal

 

[[...]]

I thought it was legal

 

I don't understand what you mean. It is legal! 

[Guest [to...]]

I thought it was legal

 

 

It is still legal.... It has been made harder to prescribe as research that has been done in Australia has proven how dangerous Xanax is.  Hence the TGA passing a schedule 8.  It seems it is only the older and uninformed that are still prescribing.

[[be...]]

I thought it was legal

 

 

It is still legal.... It has been made harder to prescribe as research that has been done in Australia has proven how dangerous Xanax is.  Hence the TGA passing a schedule 8.  It seems it is only the older and uninformed that are still prescribing.

 

 

Older and uninformed? That is not true.

[[ge...]]

does anyone have a copy of this? It says its not longer available and has been archived.

[Guest [ma...]]

does anyone have a copy of this? It says its not longer available and has been archived.

 

Are you looking for the original article? if yes it worked for me. Here is the link. you need to copy and paste the entire string. for some reason part of the address does not show up as a hyper link.

 

http://docs.health.vic.gov.au/docs/doc/C268D7932FD81954CA257BC800105F8D/$FILE/Alprazolam%20to%20become%20S8-v02.pdf