I have recently become aware(through the straight dope) that prescribed drugs in the US are are put together by a pharmacist, who then puts them in bottles and then dispenses them to you. This may then lead to people looking for smaller bottles to keep their pills (which was the thread that first made me aware of this practice), and a comment in this thread about disposing of meds made me aware of another disadvantage.
In India(and many other countries I’m sure), almost all pills come in blister packaging with each pill in its own hermetically sealed compartment, and the strip of 10 or so pills containing information about the pills like brand name, drug name, expiry date etc. Now the advantages of this in a country with a relatively weak regulatory infrastructure and shortage of trained pharmacists are enormous, but I would have thought that even in the US it would make things much simpler for both pharmacists and patients and be, in general, better. Why is it that the US still has the system of dispensing medicine that it does?
They do. Not all of them do, and many prescription drugs are sold in bottles, but we can easily get drugs in blister packs here.
For example, over-the-counter cold remedies are almost exclusively sold in blister packs. My friend suffers from migraines, and her prescription for Imitrex is packaged in blister packs. Sudofed (a brand-name of pseudoephedrine) comes in blister packs. Bunches of oral contraceptives come in blister packs. Lots and lots of drugs come in blister packs in the States.
On edit: some people don’t care for the blister packs (they can be hard to poke the pills out of - Nyquil, I’m looking at you) and so remove all of them from the pack at once. Or people move them from a large bottle to a smaller one more suitable for easy transport or to store in their desk at work. This would lead to pills losing the identifying information and thus be hard to identify. In these cases, when that info is lost, it’d be necessary to destroy the pill to identify it.
pharmacys can package any medication in blister packs if they have the set up. I’ve seen it most in long term care and also done as a special service to the elderly at home where having a month’s supply with each blister dated for use on a largish card is helpful in tracking meds.
Not common for home use here though, except for over the counter meds as expressed above. At least not where I’ve been.
In the United States, blister packs are common for occasional-use medicines, like cold remedies, antacids, that kind of thing. Daily use medicines are more often stored in bottles and counted out by pharmacists into another bottle. (Although, it is true that daily birth control pills are usually blister packed, with each blister labeled with a day of the week. This is important because some pills are blanks.)
Blister packaging looks cool and makes it easy to see how many pills are left. But’s it also more expensive, often hard to use, and much bulkier than loose pills in a bottle. I don’t think it’s either simpler or better.
We use blister packs in the hospital because it makes administration safer (harder to mix up pills if you have to scan the barcode on the blister pack before you give it), and for OTC meds, as stated. Why not in pharmacies? I’m not sure there’s an answer to that other than, “We don’t, because we haven’t.”
I hate blister packs, to be honest. I understand their advantages, but the added litter and the pills flying across the room when the impenetrable paper backed foil finally gives way drive me nuts.
Also there would need to be a space for the prescription information on each pack. You don’t want to get pulled over and not be able to prove you have a valid prescription for the Vicodin you’re carrying.
It varies a lot in the US. I’ve been on a at least a dozen or so meds, and from Walmart I’ve gotten:
Pharmacist counted bottles: mirtzapine, clonazepam, trazadone Seroquel XR, all antibiotics or analgesics
Factory sealed bottles of 30: Abilify, verapamil
Blister packs: citalopram, sertraline,
I don’t see any rhyme or reason except that more common meds that are often dispensed in certain fixed quanties are more likely to be in factory packaging.
I hate and despise blister packs. If you want your prescription medicine in the infernal things go to Walmart. Despite repeated requests for bottles, every time I went to pick up my medicine, it was in those stupid blue plastic boxes with a blister pack inside. Part of the issue was having them shoved down my throat. It has been over 6 months since I filled a prescription at Walmart and I may never again. It was somewhat of a hassle, but I can get most of the same things for about the same price at Walgreens. They are more convenient for a couple of other reasons even without their free home delivery.
Note, Walgreens said they don’t have blister packs available.
I used to buy a lot at Walmart. Now I seldom go there. They no longer stock a lot of what I used to buy. They have a customer be dammed attitude Sam would never have put up with. Walgreens, Dollar General, Lowes, and a regional farm store are getting more of my business. If I have to hit 2-3 places to find all I want, Walmart no longer is one of them.
I am pleased now I am back on Omeprazole, it comes in bottles. When you are filling a pilltainer with a half dozen different things, bottles are so much easier. When I travel, I would need another suitcase if everything I am taking was in those plastic boxes.
God damn the makers of blister packs, may they burn in Hell.
My whole family takes Imitrex for migraines.
Now look: when you have a migraine, you are essentially incapacitated. Yet the infernal blister packs require that you PEEL the plastic from the back, and then PUNCH the pill through the foil. Even if you are pain-free, sober, awake, and coordinated, peeling off that plastic layer takes time and fortitude.
As soon as we get the Imitrex refill, I’m liberating the pills from the blister packs and putting them in bottles. The directions tell you specifically NOT to do that, but I don’t see the drug manufacturer including a stand-by assistant who will open the damned things on demand when you need it!
Imitrex is now generic, but it was originally marketed by SANDOZ. I even wrote a letter to the company complaining, and was ignored.
Imitrex (sumatriptan) was first marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Sandoz manufactures a generic sumatriptan, available since 2009.
Birth control pills come in blister packs for two reasons: proper dispensing and stability. The first part is rather obvious, due to the daily regimen and the frequent inclusion of placebos. The latter is simply part of the reality of these types of hormones in tablet form: they tend to be heat, light and moisture sensitive and blister packs offer some protection for that. The small tablet size makes them harder to dispense from a bottle due to the risk of losing one, and I believe there may be friability issues for some formulations (the tablets would break if rattled in a bottle too much).
For packages with a thicker plastic, cardboard or foil backing, I recommend a pair of tweezers like these. Poke the blister with one tine next to the tablet, pinch the paper and pull. In having to open hundreds of these at work, I perfected the technique so that it was as fast as the simple push-though blisters.
When I need my migraine pill, I DO NOT NEED A DEXTERITY TEST! Having bounced between several meds, stupid health insurance, I have found every one of them to be packaged in the hardest to open blister packs on the market. The people responsible for this will burn in eternal damnation for this.
There have been times when if you had placed such person in front of me, I would have killed them. No second thoughts…well I would have puked on them first but that’s just the migraine at work. My attorney would pack the jury with fellow migraine sufferers and I would end up getting a medal.
One of the prescription meds I take comes in blister packs, apparently because it’s particularly moisture-sensitive, and having it out of the controlled environment of the blister pack for a while before taking it compromises its effectiveness (the instructions on the package even warn you not to remove a pill from the blister pack unless you’re planning on immediately taking the pill).
I could have SANDOZ on the brain. I know that Cafergot (an early migraine medication) was a SANDOZ product.
I just did some reading on Imitrex, and if you use too much, your blood can turn from red to greenish black. Kewl. If I keep taking Imitrex, I’ll turn into a Vulcan!
~VOW
Like others have said, disadvantages of blister packs:
-significant packaging cost increase
-increases product bulk many times fold
-creates considerable waste to dispose of
FORGET IT. My lack of dexterity when I have a migraine prevents me from getting the Imitrex out of this protective blister pack. I’m not in any shape to run down the street and knock on the doors of neighbors, asking them to get the pill out for me.
The blister pack also serves as a childproof container. That’s part of the reason for the convoluted, two-layer barrier to getting the damned pills out of the damned pack.
If they can put a man on the moon, yadda yadda yadda.
~VOW
When my mother (now passed away) was in a nursing home, the “drug lady” (yes, that’s what the residents called her) would come by several ties a day to give the residents their prescription medications. I watched that person a couple of times, and the bulk of the medications she dispensed were in blister packs. She’d stop on front of the residents’ rooms, pop the proper number of prescription medications out of their blister packs into a paper cup, and watch the resident as he/she took the contents.
ETA: The nursing home was in a small town in Missouri, USA.
I get my six pills renewed every month. Three of them come in blister packs and three don’t. Of the three in BPs, two can be punched out with a little efffort, but one only with a sledgehammer. Actually, I cut it with scissors. Damn those people who make these. It is mostly elderly people who use them and I, at least, find them harder and harder to deal with. It must add something to the cost and a lot to waste.
