Serzone, an SRRI used for the treatment of depression and anxiety, has been banned in Canada since Nov. 27, 2003 due to liver toxicity. It has also been banned in Europe, Scandinavia, and other countries. It has not been banned in the United States. I want to pass this message on to any users of Serzone in the U.S. who may not know about this. There are many other SRRIs that can be used to replace Serzone that don’t have liver toxicity as a side effect (Wellbutrin being one of them). Please talk to your doctor if you take Serzone and discuss this with her.
(Mods, I didn’t know where to put this - if you feel there is a better forum, please move it for me.)
I used to take Serzone, and it really worked well for me. I stopped taking it because, well, I didn’t need it anymore.
While I was on it, my doctor had me do the liver and kidney function tests every three months to make sure it wasn’t damaging my liver or kidneys. Fortunately, it didn’t.
BTW, Serzone isn’t an SSRI.
Robin
I looked it up after your post, MsRobyn, because I thought my doctor had referred to it as an SSRI, and it appears that Serzone is both an SSRI and a trycyclic. Link.
Thanks for getting me to do some homework I probably should have done a long time ago.
Uh, neither is Wellbutrin, which is supposed to be catecholaminergic, from what I understand.
Serzone (nefazodone) is a mild serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibior, and a potent 5-HT2A receptor antagonist. For those with a deficiency in a certain liver enzyme (CYP450 2D6), there may be significant effects (mostly adverse) from the buildup of a metabolite, meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP), which is a potent 5-HT2A&C and 5-HT3 receptor agonist. To put this in perspective, mirtazepine has the opposite effect at 5-HT2 & 3 receptors. According to my mom, Serzone can cause panic attacks in such individuals, via mCPP.
Serzone has non-linear pharmicokinetics, due to the fact that it inhibits its own metabolism; most importantly, it inhibits CYP450 3A4, and mildly inhibits 2D6. Because many other psychiatric drugs (esp. benzodiazepines) are metabolized by 3A4, this has always limited the utility of Serzone.
Hepatotoxicity is just one of its many shortcomings, from what I understand. I am also told that for some it works very well, and has minimal sexual side-effects, which, for my mom, is the biggest reason for drug non-compliance she has encountered.
Seems typical of these psychotropic meds, from what I hear and read: The bad outweighing the good is always a danger.
<nitpick> Scandinavia is in Europe. <nitpick>
So what you’re saying is talk to your doctor if you take Serzone, Loopydude?
Look, I’m not trying to do anything spectacular with this thread here; I found out that there is a disparity between what Health Canada considers safe for its citizens and what the FDA considers safe. My only goal in starting this thread was to give information to people who might not have received it already.
Well, yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
P.S. If you’re one of those people getting your meds prescribed to you by a primary care doc., do yourself a favor and get a psych doc, or at least a well-trained psych NP. The fact that psychotropic meds can have all kinds of liabilities isn’t news, but with the care of a specialist well-versed in psychopharmacology, it’s quite possible to derive great benefit from psych pharmacotherapy, whilst effectively managing the adverse effects.
I may be mistaken, but I thought it just got suspended by the FDA. I looked it up yesterday, or was that serovent?
It was serevent. And it was availability, not production at our automated pharmacy. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!