DrugBuyers.Com: Generic versus Brand

What an interesting link! After 3 weeks of a breathtaking, could not be controlled arthritic back flare up, I met with my Dr. today , angry and in tears of frustration. He is a very very good Dr, and was mystified that the therapy wasn't working. The 10mg Percocets weren't working, and I was also taking two 7.5 Vicodin every 6 hours, and THAT wasn't working either. After a thorough discusion , he asked if I was getting generic or brand name pain pills from the pharmacy. They were generic. In North Carolina, the law is that a generic is dispensed unless the client requests otherwise. It did not occur to me that there could be a difference. Even though he wrote the script for a brand name, the pharmacist substituted a generic. Dr was furious, wrote a script for Lortab, 10mg, and I insisted that the pharmacist give what was ordered. Bottom line--- when I got home, I took a 1/2 tab of Lortab, and got instant relief that 15mgs of generic Vicodin couldn't touch! My wonderful Dr. really dislikes generics--says that is how pharmacies really make quite a bit of money--plus, as the link you provided said---there can be as much as a 25% difference in potentency. That 25% differnce helped put me through 3 weeks of pure hell--plus I was terrified that my need for such high doses of narcotics was going to be nightmare for me as well as my Dr. Thank God that he is extremely caring and committed to using many different plans to isolate and control pain. He uses everything--steriod shots, therapy 4 or 5 days a week, exercise, and a whole range of pain medication from very simple to potent. But as he said---if the medication isn't the right strength, more harm than good is done. When I read your link, I almost fell off my chair. It's bad enough to be undermedicated by a Dr who is afraid to prescribe the amount of medication needed, but even worse to be given a generic that doesn't have the proper amount of pain mgs within it. Aggggggggh! From now on, We are only requesting non-generic meds. Our Dr agrees. Now this explains many of the complaints on the boards about "weak" meds. Sorry DB for this long rant,and it's probably in the wrong forum, but I was REALLY angry when I saw that link.Please protect yourselves, and research the OPs and pharmacies before you plunk down all thathard earned money, and get little relief.

--------------------
dwelling in silence brings peace