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I'm pretty sure it came out in early 1998.  Seems when Fen-phen came off the market this stuff came out and I still see it advertised.  I tried it once but it did not work for me.  I think it was 10mg in a capsule form but I think there are other mg's too for it but I only tried this one.

Hi Amberpfe!  Even though Meridia boosted your spirits and you felt good about yourself, did you have your health checked?  Also, I think we would like to hear from your Mom's point of view too.  Sounds like she had a difficult time.  All of these diet drugs are bad, even if you feel good about yourself, you don't know what damage it may have caused to your system unless you have it all checked out.   

To answer the initial question,  My dose of Meridia is 15mg daily.

I was so excited to be in the diet-drug study that I overdid it and ate less than the recommended 1200 calories per day. (The bad toothache :evil: I was having during that time helped some!)    I wear a pedometer to help  measure my exercise, but really haven't tried hard in that department. I need to, though, to keep my muscles toned.

So anyway, I lost 20 pounds in 3 months. I had the side effects of dry mouth, which was really bad at first with burning tongue, constipation (I eat prunes and so forth to compensate), and difficulty sleeping (but not much drowsiness except from lack of sleep) which I have taken advantage of by staying up all night sometimes playing computer!  I did not get headaches or dizziness.

I read up on Meridia over the Internet. It was implicated in health problems, even death, for people with heart problems and even banned in Europe for awhile. When Celebrex and Vioxx were getting such bad press, the FDA decided not to ban Meridia, but just to issue stronger warnings and require that blood pressure be monitored. About 2%, or 12% in another study, got elevated blood pressure while on Meridia.

I take a small diuretic for my blood pressure and it hasn't been much affected. I expected the weight loss might make it go down, but BP is a complicated thing. Maybe my weight has to be down at least as long as it was up before there's any real change!

Meridia users should lose at least 4.4 pounds in the first 4 weeks, and 8 pounds in three months. If they don't, then Meridia is not for them. If your BMI is less than 27, or you weigh 200+ pounds and are under age 44, then  you might consider some other choices.   

Meridia causes mood changes a little like Prozac. Now Prozac takes about 3 weeks to make a change. It works by blocking the re-uptake of seritonin, a brain chemical, and that explains the difficulty sleeping. I figure if I'm not asleep, I'm burning more calories!  But lack of sleep is bad for your brain. A few deep breaths every 15 minutes after 2am is a good thing. 

I don't think I've noticed any prozac-like changes. sigh. I heard it made you feel better and happier about life in general. Well, a toothache, 2 hurricanes, anxiety about aging parents,:cry: and about my son and his problems, may have cancelled that out.

///Polly