http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/story?id=3731555&page=1


Generic Drugs: Dangerous Differences?
Docs Debate Whether the Differences Between Generic Drugs and Their Brand  The accounts are disturbing. Patients taking a popular antidepressant who switched to its generic equivalent expected the same effects.

Doctors debate whether research showing a difference between the brand name and generic versions of a popular antidepressant is a cause for concern.
(ConsumerLab.com)"I got switched to a different generic of Wellbutrin XL, and my life was destroyed," reads one account submitted to the Web site of the syndicated newspaper column The People's Pharmacy. "I became suicidal. I had not been this depressed in years. ... My experience with the generic destroyed everything in my life that was important to me."

"For the first few months, I got the Wellbutrin, then my insurance company said I had to get the generic," reads a recent post on the ConsumerLab.com Web site. "I didn't think it was a problem; I'd used generics before

I was recently changed by insurance to another brand of stomach acid-controlling medicine, one I suspect is cheaper, and have had some problems with it. As things move slowly in our house, we have not had time to check into how to get back to the other brand yet.

Indeed, many people are allergic to the yellow dye #5 (tartrazine).