Is the medicine Buspar considered an older anxiety medication?

I took Buspar for a while as treatment for pheochromocytoma, but had to discontinue because I experienced hallucinations. Pheo’s cause the patient to be clinically hyperadrenal, thus the anxiety. I was later moved on to something far more insidious; Effexor.

The patent expired in November of 2000 which means it came out in about 1983 or so. There was some squabbling with Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS) went it was to go off patent and the generic manufacturers wanted to produce it. There was a lawsuit or two about it.

That being said, Buspar has been around for a while and a number of other, newer drugs have entered the market place. The availability of newer drugs does not negate the benefit of Buspar for the right patient.

I think it works for the right people. The newer stuff is what is pushed by the reps buying your doc lunch. I kid I kid. My doctor went old school with me too. It works so I don’t complain too much.

I remember magazine ads for it in the mid-90s. I overheard someone say they had a prescription for it the other day and thought it was odd because I haven’t heard about it in a long time.

It is pretty old, yes. Many people find relief from anxiety taking it. Doctors like it because they believe it to be not addictive. Many in the psyche community joke that it isn’t addictive because it doesn’t work. I took it for a short while, and it did help my anxiety, but it disrupted my sleep.

I say always go with an older drug if it works. The side effects are better known, and it is less likely to have a long term bad effect from the medication, because if there were any dire effects from long term use they would be known and the drug would have been pulled or black box warnings on the insert.