Posted by Viridis on May 28, 2003, at 2:48:33
In reply to My pharmacy gave me the wrong drug!, posted by ST on May 27, 2003, at 19:30:21
Stories like that are surprisingly common. A few years ago, a friend of mine got 50 Xanax, instead of Zantac (for heartburn). I've never had anything that dramatic, but not long ago I did check my Neurontin prescription in the parking lot to find only 9 pills (instead of 90) for my "one month" supply. They apologized and gave me the rest, but it did seem strange to me that the pharmacist didn't find this odd and double-check, especially since the prescription said one month supply along with "#90". Now I go with mail order through my insurance co., and the results seem much more consistent -- with regular pharmacies, I found pill miscounts (in either direction) quite common.
There is a move afoot to try to avoid drugs with similar-sounding names, for the kind of reason you described. For example, the pharmaceutical name for Strattera is atomoxetine; it was originally tomoxetine, but there was concern that it might be confused with tamoxifen (a breast cancer drug), so the "a" was added.
poster:Viridis
thread:229561
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030525/msgs/229638.html