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Mourning the Loss of Pemoline (Cylert)
I was one of those left out in the cold with the withdrawal of pemoline from the market in early 2006. I have been stuck with modafinil as my only non-amphetamine choice ever since, and, frankly, for ADD (for me, anyway) it is relatively worthless. Pemoline was my sliced-bread. It worked better than any of the amphetamines, was virtually addiction-proof, and had no evidence of decreased efficacy with a constant dose over a very long timeframe.
As you might be aware, modafinil is very expensive in the US ( $8.50/pill - and, for me, that's x 2). I've been getting it in India through my world-traveling brother for $.25/pill - a mere 2% of the US cost. I have not been able to find pemoline, however, anywhere in the world, which is what prompted my writing. Is there anywhere in the world where pemoline is still sold? I find it incredibly hard to believe - read: impossible - that after a 70-year run, all of a sudden it causes acute, irreversible liver failure in a significant number of cases to have prompted Abbott to have issued its every 2-week liver enzyme lab-test mandate. This, I believe, is a manifestation of pure greed on Abbott's part. Funny how the warning came out right after pemoline was available in generic form from Sandoz and Malinkrodt. This, of course, virtually shut down any market for this remarkably useful drug. My guess is, also, that virtually all the cases of liver failure were in children - although I have no proof of this.
The quality of my life has been dramatically, and negatively, affected by my lack of access to pemoline. If any of you know of any way to obtain it - through experimental or other channels - I would be most interested in finding out how. I am more than willing to accept the minimal (as I see it, anyway) risk of pemoline use - at least compared to the relative non-efficacy of modafinil (or it's new single-isomer armodafinal), or the blood-pressure/alpha-adrenergic/cardiac/tolerance risks of the amphetamine route - to get back what has been taken from me.
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