I wonder if anyone has had blood pressure increases when switching from Norvask to the generic Cartia. My BP was reasonable at 130/80 or so. I've been at 154/100 or so since January when my doctor prescribed the generic! Since I have reverse whitecoat, my doctor is not concerned. I'm worried!
Generic isn't exactly the same as the brand name. Some people sometimes do not get the same result with a generic as the brand name.
Tell your doctor about your concerns and see if you can get him to write you a script for the brand name specifically. This would be cheaper, insurance wise. If your doctor is uncooperative, talk to the pharmacist and see if you can get the brand name filled. That will probably cost you more, but worth it if your bp goes down.
These are quite different drugs. Among the BP meds the calcium channel blockes have probably the largest differences among them.
Norvasc is amlodipine and Cartia is diltiazem.
You may do very differently on one or the other. Stay with the one that has the best combination of price, results, and side effects for you. Since the Norvasc is NOT available generically, it's at least twice as expensive as diltiazem.
Yes, Cartia is significantly different than Norvasc. They are both CCB's. But, that's about where the similarities end. Plendil (available as generic felodipine) is probably the closest substitution for Norvasc available.
FWIW, at one point I was prescribed Cardizem CD. The pharmacy gave me Cartia XT. And, this was a generic drug by my health insurance - very cheap copay. Looking at the formulary for a couple other health insurance companies, it appears that Cartia seems to be considered a generic by all of them. However, Cardizem and Tiazac both are classified as brand names.
I guess you might say Tiazac is in never-never land, too:
Quote:
Tiazac Battle Ends With Settlement
In Feb. 2002, Andrx Corp. ended it's long drawn out battle with Biovail Corp. to introduce a generic version of the critical heart drug Tiazac. The two
companies entered into a settlement that ended costly patent litigation under which Andrx will be allowed to sell a less-costly version of Tiazac in
return for making royalty payments to Biovail.
To repeat: The amazing and true fact is that all these once a day Diltiazems are the same thing!?
I used to take diltiazem. The one I took was simply called diltiazem xr.
I had previously taken cardiazem and it didn't give me any side effects but the generic one gave me headaches. Also the generic one was a huge capsule that was hard to swallow.
I was wondering about the other generic ones you all are talking about. do they cause side effects and what about their size?
Cass
Cassie, In the U.S. basically these are the ways that you can buy diltiazem (generic name):
Cardizem
Cardizem CD
Cardizem SR
Cartia XT
Dilacor XR
Diltia XT
Diltiazem CD
Diltiazem HCl
Diltiazem HCl CR
Tiazac
Differences: The Tiazac and any of the others with initials after them are 24 hour dosing (once a day) and the pills are BIG because they are giving you a day's worth. The two choices:
Cardizem and diltiazem hydrochloride are available in doses as low as 30 mg., thus small pills but then you must remember to take them as scheduled several times a day.
Since the 24 hour variants must add a melange of other fillers for slow dissolution, I can see how it's possible that the "plain vanilla" Cardizem might treat you better headache-wise than one of the alphabet soup varieties.
(My sister got terrible headaches from Cardizem but I don't remember which version she was on.)
I got headaches on Cartia XT. On my first day, I had a headache that started about 1 hour after taking it in the morning. It lasted the entire day (over 12 hours). And, I seldom get headaches. When I do, a simple acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) usually does the trick. But, not on this headache. Since that one pill actually seemed to control my BP for that day, I decided to give it one more try. Yep, another day of a solid headache. Enough of that. Maybe this would have gone away over time. I don't know. But, I wouldn't be able to tolerate it long enough to find out.
I was sort of hoping it would have worked because it was very cheap out of pocket.
Tiazac is a small capsule and gives me no obvious side effects. Except: It doesn't
exactly cause constipation, but my bowel behavior, so to speak, is altered by it.
In general, it seems to me to be a powerful drug, and I wonder about long-term effects.
Taztia XT (generic Tiazac) has a constipating effect on me. I found I had to take it after breakfast rather than before to take care of that problem. I used to sometimes get ringing in my ears (mostly gone now), and strong heart beat (fortunately this one has gone away).
