Ok, you pharmeceutical types-- my husband just dislocated his shoulder and got a prescription for strong Motrin-- he picked up a generic equivilant of 600 mg ibuprofin, and without insurance it looks like the flat rate is about 30 bucks for 20 of these. Yikes.
So we are curious-- is there a difference between taking a 600 mg ibuprofin pill and taking 3 of the 200 mg ibuprofins that we pick up at Trader Joes for a much cheaper price per mg.? Is there something about a time release or buffering or something in the larger dosed pills? Thanks in advance for the information.
No difference as far as I’m concerned. I’ll often tell my patients it may be cheaper to go OTC than to get the prescription.
Qadgop, MD
Capy – please note that you should ask your doctor for any medical advice, you should not ask a public message board.
Qadgop says he’s a doctor, but you have no way of knowing that for sure (No offense, Qad, just want to make the point that online, anyone can say they’re anything. Heck, there are number of folk that pretend to be human, for that matter.)
Call your doctor for advice of this nature. You should not only be concerned with the general situation (“Generally speaking, are three 200 mg ibuprofins equivalent to one 600 mg pill?”) but also with the specific situation (“In my husband’s particular case, are there reasons for prescribing…”). The latter situation can only be answered by your doctor who did the examinations and prescribed the treatment.
My doctor assures me that when I run out of Pepcid 40mg tablets, I can just go to the local Drug Fair and pick up a mega pack of 10mg pills & take four of those. Absolutely no difference according to him. I didn’t ask him if that line of reasoning applies at all meds, though.
Hmm, now Dex has me wondering. I’ve no real proof that this guy is a doctor. Sure, he wears a white coat & has lousy handwriting but aside from that…
Next time I’m going to insist he show me a large piece of fancy paper in a frame with lots of Latin writing & the word “graduate” printed somewhere on it. 
If you happen to be in the pharmacy while pondering this question, the pharmacist is also a good source of face-to-face advice where medication is concerned.
Attrayant writes, <<My doctor assures me that when I run out of Pepcid 40mg tablets, I can just go to the local Drug Fair and pick up a mega pack of 10mg pills & take four of those. Absolutely no difference according to him. I didn’t ask him if that line of reasoning applies at all meds, though. >>
I take one 800mg instead of four 200mg because four pills upset my stomach more. If a person had stomach upset or suffered from the other side effects of OTC meds, that might be a good reason to ask their doctor if they needed to take the prescription stuff.
Corr
Dex has a point. That’s why I try to talk about general points, and avoid specific advice, and tell people to see a real life doctor. I hope I succeed at this in the main, but occasionally I may get sloppy.
But the GQ was “is 3 200mg ibuprofen tablets the same as 1 600 mg tablet” and to my knowledge, the answer is “yes”.
Dex,
Clearly understood. Thanks to the board administrators for their professionalism and vigilance concerning board content. If this had been of a more complex and involved medical nature (do you think drinking mercury is really bad for you?) I would show more caution. It was an idle general question prompted by hanging around Pay-Less for an hour waiting for ibuprofin-- he’s following his doc’s advice.
There is a subtle difference that may or may not effect you depending on your state.
Here is the difference. (this is in Illinois at least) Suppose my doctor writes a prescription for Valium and he checks the box saying “may substitute”. Illinois state law says that whatever generic brand the pharmacy substitutes must be in identical to Valium (this is a name brand like Motrin or Bayer is a name brand for ibuprofin or aspirin).
Now supposing my doctor writes a prescription for diazapam. This is the generic name for Valium. Well this, under state law, does NOT have to be identical to Valium. Only the other way around.
You see in the first example the doctor asked for Valium in the second diazapam.
I ALWAYS ask my doctor for the NAME brand and to check may substitute.
In reality I doubt there is little if any difference at all.
To make Dex happy I will say that “The following is not medical advice but a true anecdote. See your doctor.” I saw my doctor for joint inflammation and he said he could write a prescription for some hi-octane Motrin, or I could just take the equivalent milligrams in the OTC version. He said I would save money using the OTC version and it wouldn’t make any difference. YMMV.