What do you call chemists? Or do you call both chemists and then figure it out by context?
I think of a “druggist” as a middle-aged man in one of those Nehru jacket things.
As for being mad at the pharmacist, what’s the point? We don’t make those decisions; the FDA and drug companies do.
I believe the term “chemist” is a holdover from the days when pharmacists compounded most of the drugs they sold. A pharmacist ran a sort of chemical factory or lab.
The word “druggist” was pretty common when I was a kid. It’s fallen into disuse for some reason, possibly because “pharmacist” sounds more clinical and professional.
And just to chime in on the original issue: having to get a new prescription may be inconvenient, but liver damage is a lot more inconvenient.
Have you looked at a label recently? Because they all have the same standardized active ingredient list prominently displayed on the back, down to the yellow highlighting. It makes it a snap to make sure the Walmart brand cough medicine has the same medicine as the Tylenol brand one.
People will continue to blow up their livers even if you stamp the message on the pill itself.
I have, I do it all that time, I’m always checking labels. It’s one of the things I do. I hate having to hunt all over a box or bottle trying to find them on some items.
In fact, I was going to take a picture showing just how different they are on everything but I have to get going to work. Go check on your bottles and boxes. On some they’re right at the top, on some they’re on the side, on some they’re on the front, on some they’re highlighted in yellow, on most they’re not.
My suggestion (and it’s just that as I really haven’t thought it out) is that it’s more standardized. On top of that, I’d like to see that active ingredients listed on the front. That way someone knows that when they take Tylenol PM and Nyquil, they’re taking, more or less, the same drug twice. In their mind, they’re taking the Nyquil because that’s what you take for a cold at night time and they’re taking the Tylenol PM because that’s what they take to fall asleep. They don’t even bother to look at the drugs, but maybe if it were right there on the front they’d see it.
Maybe people would stop talking about how AMAZING ZZZQuil or Nyquil or Tylenol PM is when they see that it’s all just Benadryl, and you probably already have some around your house somewhere and you don’t have to go and spend $8 on a bottle of something you saw in a commercial.
The latter, although I normally say “pharmacist” (for the person) or “pharmacy” for the place where you go to find pharmacists.
If anything, the presence of the acetaminophen was THE factor making hydrocodone combo products schedule III instead of II (and Fioricet and it’s generics non-scheduled, vs Fiorinal and it’s generics), and thus, more easily obtainable (it has been in the top 5 drugs on Top 200 lists for years now). Of course, if the OP and his friend are this upset about this particular situation, wait till they see the DEA reclassify ALL hydrocodone products into Schedule II (the FDA has already endorsed this, and the public comment period on the DEA’s current proposed rule change ended 4-28-14) later this year, as it’s looking like they will do.
Huuuuuge PITA. The formulary changed an a few different meds. So all the scripts were getting kicked back to us. Docs and nurses who didn’t know (or remember) were just processing refills off the last script. Frustrated patients. Frustrated pharmacists. Frustrated office staff. The good thing is, since narcotic pain meds are only refilled one month at a time, the problem was temporary, but it was a huge deal for a couple of months.
And yet, my CVS just gave me the “new” Vicodin without a problem. I suppose because they have to call it in each time?
AbbVie and their sales reps (as well as anyone that made the generics) should have given everyone from Docs all the way to pharmacists a few months of heads up. They also should have overlapped the two formulas for a few months to give people time to make the transfer.
If the sales reps had told script writers that as of a certain date they need to write scripts for 5/300 instead of 5/500, but they could start doing it three months early and pharmacists told patients that as of a certain date 5/500 wouldn’t be available but as of today they should start asking doctors to write it as 5/300 etc.
It seems that the manufacturers should have gotten the word out. Of course, there’s no reason for them to spend too much money on it, but they already have reps (at least AbbVie does, I don’t know about generic manf) in a lot of offices so it wouldn’t have been to tough to get at least some of it done by word of mouth.
FDA gave us months of notice, I know for sure that I knew last May.
I believe vicodin is 5/300 and everyone else including all the generics are 5/325. At a continuing ed course on drugs the word was that vicodin did this so if you wrote vicodin a generic couldn’t be substituted because it was a different formulation. Don’t know for sure but sure could be reasonable.
I work very tangentially with the medical industry, but close enough that I hear A LOT of stories. I assumed there was some notice, my guess is that they [the manufacturers) either didn’t give enough notice or the people that needed to listen…didn’t.
rast3acr, I know you’re a doctor (dentist IIRC), but we all know doctors with their heads way to far up their own asses to hear something as miniscule as “hey, start writing it as hydrocodone/APAP 5/300 from now on” or they do hear it and they just don’t care “um, what, oh, yeah, just let my PA know, he can tell me later” or they just totally ignore it, knowing that if they do something wrong (be it on this or any other script) the pharmacy will call back. Not caring that it means the patient has to wait another 2-24 hours to actually get their med.
I wonder if “Vicodin” automatically defaults to 5/300 now or if that pharmacy rejects that?
yes, a dentist. I know what you mean but in our office the dentists all write their own Rxs. And if there is a problem the pharmacy will call. I will say I do appreciate the job they do looking out for our mistakes. Early in Jan I wrote 5/500(hey it is like putting the wrong date on a check) and sure enough they called and we corrected the mistake. As far as I know the pharm. can’t just fix the mistake, the have to call.
Also looks like fairly soon all hydrocodone is going to be sched. II That will sure be a major pain in the ass.
Because it might be of overall benefit to society to reduce the number of people who have to be treated for kidney failure. In terms of public health issues, it might not make sense to worry about assigning blame.
Nice to know I’m not the only weirdo around who gets a sedative effect from acetaminophen. I even have to be careful with Midol-type products to make sure that if I’m going to have to go to work or drive any time soon that I’ve grabbed the bottle that has caffeine in it to offset that effect.
My wife is convinced ibuprofen helps her sleep and relaxes her.
Doesn’t work that way for me, but might very well for her if she has an idiosyncratic reaction. I wouldn’t rule it out. 
On the other hand, if I take something with hydrocodone or codeine in it I’ll be completely wired. I won’t take it unless I have benedryl in the house and I’ll try to avoid it past about 7pm (my bedtime is midnight). Most people can take Vicodin and fall asleep. I can take it and clean the house. It’s like taking a handful of Addreall. My Ex-MIL is like that too. If I take it after 7pm, I’ll plan on taking 3-4 Benadryls around midnight if I don’t want to be up until 2 or 3 in the morning.
The last time I had Codeine/Tylenol prescribed for pain, I had concerns about the Tylenol. For anyone with a background in basic chemistry, it is a trivial matter to remove the acetaminophen.
You don’t even need that, just some cold water.