Coming from the US, and having a number of mental disorders (bipolar with Panic Disorder and GAD), I’m on meds here. BUT, they are nowhere near as effective or potent as what I got in the states. For example, the alprazolam here for my panic attacks are like candy compared to what I got in the states! Is anyone else having this issue and how do you compensate for it?
Pharmacuetical human grade meds are under extreme scrutiny when it comes to dosage and safety. ITS THE SAME 100%!!! You have probably built a tolerance to benzodiazepines if it’s not working the same or it’s mental. If a person dies taking alprazolam dies from having the dosage to be not as advertised that pharmacuetical company can go bye bye along with a huge law suit. Or even if people tested it, youre talking about a huge class action lawsuit.
In one study, subjects with Parkinson’s Disease were given shots of two supposedly similar medications. They were told that the first was more expensive, and the second was similar in effectiveness but, because of differences in manufacturing, was much cheaper. The overall result was that patients’ motor skills after the first shot were improved 28% compared to the second shot. The one fact that the patients weren’t told: Both shots were actually just saline solution. Study authors believe patients got better because they had very high expectations, which translated into health benefits.
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Ask for the same brand or a generic equivalent?
A dosage should be the same in Taiwan as in the US. While you can find some brands that are not available in the US, it’s not some wild unregulated country.
Do you think you’re getting the same brand as US but that it is fake or bad quality or something?
Or go to a different doctor. Many many have been educated in the US or other places and will know exactly what you think you want.
Look at your alprazolam, is it the .5mg pink ones by pfizer? Thats the one they give in taiwan. If it is, that’s brand name xanax made by pfizer, they own the patent for xanax from upjohn. It would be the same exact thing you get in the US. But the highest dosage they have is .5mg, no xanax 2mg bars like the US. But still the same, the 2mg Xanax bars, or 1mg blue ovals xanax are all made by pfizer.
The above is what you should have, its what all hospitals and pharmacies carry. Xanax is actually one of the few medicines that you can get brand name covered by NHI.
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Yeah, I’ve tried all of htat. It’s just the meds here don’t have the same
effect on me as the ones back home. Some of my heart meds didn’t even work
as well! But the generic name is all the same. But there’s an OBVIOUS
different in how it reacts with me. It’s kind of scary. But it does seem of
lower quality and has weird side effects that i never used to get.
Yes, I realize this. My mother is from Taiwan…I know the doctors, they
are wonderful. Most are trained in the US. I’ve just had trouble finding
the meds I used to be on, and the ones I was on that I find have a
different reaction in my body.
Interesting, I get something called Alprine (alprazolam)…and it’s much
weaker than in the states (or the states just make it too potent). But I’m
adjusting. Just sucks when I can’t find the heart meds I used here that
really worked well for me.
Are you saying to request Xanax by brand name and not get generic?
thats impossible. If youre right, go take it to a lab, and sue the company and you’ll never have to work again. We are talking about a serious drug that can have life and death consequences at the wrong dosage of active ingredients man. You’ve just built a tolerance or it’s in your head.
You don’t seem to understand what i’m saying and how human grade drugs from pharmaceuticals work. Brand name like xanax is just a patented name of the drug the pharmaceutical company has. They get a time period, I think 20 years where they are the only company that can manufacture that drug. After that time, any pharmaceutical company can make that drug, but can’t call it the original patented name. But Brand name patented drug is exactly the same as generic, exactly. There has been some debate, but time and time again, it’s tested as the same in all double blinds. You can ask for brand names, but it’s of course going to be more costly, just because people prefer it. But this is some serious stuff, the FDA has extremely strict guidelines and inspections, also the FDA in Taiwan as well.
The problem you seem to have is not the same quality of meds, a lot of meds you take are not even from US pharma companies like Roche (Swiss) Novartis (Swiss) Bayor (German) The issue you seem to have is not having the same med that you were prescribed and having doctors give you another med that is treated for the same thing. It’s not about the quality of the med itself, they are all FDA tested, not to mention tested like a crazy amount because one fuck up by a pharmacuetical company will be a disaster. Will you ever take a drugs from a company that got caught selling improperly dosed stuff ever again if caught? The problem is for example, I am used to taking xanax but instead the doctor switched me valium, both benzos and used for the same thing but slightly different in the family of benzos. I can react not as effectively to it. Nothing to do with the quality of meds, just different meds can take time to get used to or have different reactions to you.
If anything US of doesn’t even have better meds, drug companies will tweak a drug just a little bit when their patent runs out and sell it under a new patent. And they will get their drug reps to go to the hospital and doctors to convince them to prescribe a more expensive patented drug that isn’t proven to be more effective at all. So most of the time in the US, I ask for the generic so I don’t get suckered into a patented drug the company has tweaked like 3 times that does exactly the same thing but maybe has a 1 hour longer half life claiming the effects last longer…it’s the difference between a 100$ refill and 20 dollar refill. Taiwan doesn’t have this problem because the NHI covers mostly generics.
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Good luck gulping that shit down
I’m 2nd to @Andrew0409, if the name of the medicine is the same, it should be the same. I suspect the difference of the react might be due to the different environment here from the US. Environment may have some effect on your body.
If the same brand-name just check the dosage is different or not.
For generics there’s a very good quality control stands called PIC/S . It will be printed on the side of the box.
Pharma companies need PICS to export to other countries and it involves a much higher standard of quality control in production. Some local generics may be of lower quality but if you see PIC/S it should be A Ok.
Generally pharma ingredients and products are very well monitored (and that is absolutely the case for multinationals ) but go with PIC/S for generics.
If it’s so impossible, then why did I have extremely high blood pressure, HR through the roof, and they determined I needed to be on an extra heart med?
When I was only on that 1 for 6 years and was just fine.
I’m not the first , second, or third person I’ve heard of that had this same issue. Sure, when you talk about things like immodium, or even headache pills, they work fine. But get into the deeper prescriptions, and things are not the same.
I don’t get boxes. I can’t even see an expiration date on my blister packs. For all I know it’s been sitting there well past expiration. I try to look up their generics, and I have the hardest time finding anything about it. I didn’t even think to ask for brand names. I am assuming they carry that by request?
You can ask them to provide details as is your right. Its important not to take expired drugs, correct.
I suspect there are some fraudulaent meds from some pharmacies but should be rare enough.
If prescribed under Jian Bao you may have little choice in the drug manufacturer cos not all brand names are covered by Jian Bao due to cost.
I completely understand how it works–esp having been in medicine in the states. I just wasn’t sure how things are regulated here, and I notice an OBVIOUS difference. Even in the states, certain generics were not as efficient or seemed “different” than other generics, so it took a while to know which generic I could and could not take. Brand names in the states were way too expensive. I do not mind purchasing brand name here, at least to see depending on the cost. I will ask about that the next time I go–though I doubt my dr’s office (all of my dr’s have their own pharmacies they use) will prob not carry the brand name.
Because like you said before, they switched your meds and you didn’t react as well to your previous meds.
You can tell them you are sensitive to changing meds see what they say . There are some central pharmacies in Taipei that stock everything no prescription either for a lot of stuff.