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From: suki@reed.UUCP (Monica Nosek)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Valium Patent Expires
Message-ID: <1191@reed.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Mar-85 00:33:22 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.1191
Posted: Thu Mar 28 00:33:22 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Mar-85 02:48:47 EST
Reply-To: suki@reed.UUCP (Monica Nosek)
Distribution: na
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 25

> My sister takes valium as a *muscle relaxant* when she needs one
> (which is very infrequently).  She's also a nurse, and you'd think
> she'd know, but it seemed strange to me.   Anyone out there ever
> heard of such a thing?  I'd have thought that with all the specific
> muscle relaxants around (my own favorite is Flexeril), she'd take
> one of those, but there she is with her valium. 

My mom, also a nurse, was diagnosed several years ago as
suffering from "mitral valve prolapse", an arrythmia that
didn't seem to cause her any problems but that her doctor felt
was caused by stress (rotten children will do that to you
:-)), so he prescribed Valium as a relaxant.  It had an
astounding effect:  the woman was wound up like I've never
seen, talking a mile-and-a-half a minute and cleaning the
house three or four times a day to expend the excess energy
that the Valium gave her.  Odd, for a drug that is supposed to
be a relaxant, anti-depressant, tranquilizer, etc.  Down the
toilet went the Valium, and she was soon back to normal and on
a different medication.  Why did this happen?  No on seems to
know.  I've heard reports that Valium isn't the wonder drug
that many people seem to think it is; this would seem to
support that view, at least for people like me dear ol' Mum.
Any similar experiences with it out there?
			Monica
			...!tektronix!reed!suki