Addiction to xolair - clarification of terminology

[Guest guest]

Dear Margarita,

I am nurse and I feel there must be a open discussion

before people get the wrong impression.

The term " addiction " is very value-laden in our

society. We picture drug " addicts " mugging old ladies

in the subway for cash. The true definition of

addiction implies there is a psychological craving for

the substance which leads to drug-seeking behaviours.

People get addicted to drugs (eg opioids) as they

stimulate the dopaminergic pleasure centre in the

brain. Xolair does not do this.

We can speak of a physiological dependence on a drug

such as prednisone whereby the patient would exhibit

withdrawl symptoms if it were abruptly stopped. This

is not addicted. No one is mugging old ladies in the

subway to get the pleasurable effects of pred.

The symptoms you may be describing may have nothing to

do with xolair per se. As you know, the allergy

cascade is multifactorial and xolair targets only one

area of it. Perhaps your prednisone dose has been

lowered enough so that it is no longer covering your

allergies and asthma and the initial response you got

was just your body reacting to that drug and not the

xolair.

We do not know the long-term effects of xolair as the

medication has only been approved since 2003. Everyone

who takes it must realize that. Perhaps after 20 years

of treatment, we will all turn bald and lose an eye.

Who knows. We do assume that risk.

Not everyone has the same reaction to the same drug.

You are not " addicted " to it. You may have developed a

tolerance requiring a higher dose. Long term studies

have not yet shown if tolerance develops.

If you are not happy being on xolair, then by all

means please talk to your doctor and consider stopping

it. Perhaps it is not the drug for you.

We must be careful not to scare people when the facts

do not support it and this is why this board is

moderated by people like Doug, Addy, and

myself.

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