Generic vs. Name

[Greenday]

Yea, long-term use of acetominophin is toxic to your liver. You should be okay though if that was a past thing and you don't use it all the time now.

I'm worried about how I'm taking antibiotics daily and I've been taking them for about three months straight now. That can't be good for my liver.

[DrFaroohk]

Damn now I worry about my liver. Several years ago I had a mild OTC drug problem and was taking Tylenol PM and it's equivalents like candy. no I wans't doing it to get high. Helped me sleep. Mass insomnia here.

[XCashier]

also toilet paper/paper towels. the cheap ones disintegrate and you actually use more than you would if you bought the good kind.

Actually, I've had very good luck with Target's store brand. The paper towels especially are nice and thick, and you can get either the standard sheets or the ones that are perforated at half-size for smaller jobs.

Cola: gotta be Pepsi. Only non-Pepsi colas I like are Cherry Coke and Cherry RC (haven't had that in a long time).

Macaroni & Cheese: if it's not made from scratch, it should be Kraft. I've tried other kinds with very mixed results, and always inferior to Kraft.

Cereals: really, the Malt-O-Meal varieties are very close in quality to the name brands, and much cheaper. Unless you like a very specific kind of cereal that they don't make (like Peanut Butter Crunch or Chex).

Canned products: there are a few that I specifically go for the name brand (like Dole Mandarin Oranges in fruit juice, oh, those are yummy!), but most of the time, I can get the store brand with little to no difference.

Dairy: usually store brand. Surprisingly, the local store brand string cheese actually tastes better than the name brand.

Shampoo: I buy the generic version of Paul Mitchell's Shampoo One and The Detangler from the local beauty supply shop. It's cheaper than real Paul Mitchell and works and smells just as good.

[Andara Bledin]

For toothpaste, we prefer Tom's of Maine or Arm and Hammer since it does the job (especially the whitening) without any harsh ingredients.

We recently switched to Tom's in my household, and we prefer it a ton over the others we've had.

^-.-^

[tropicsgoddess]

For the most part I go generic, but there's a few things I don't buy generic.

My I don't ever buy generic list (and why):

Feminine Hygiene products : the generics are lower quality and the maxi pads no matter how thin they say feel like diapers and the absorption isn't as good.

Ketchup: SO is a ketchup lover and Heinz is the only brand he likes.

Batteries:The brand names last longer than the generics or no-namers

Electronics: higher quality and better reputation.

Toiletries: I use Dove because I love how it moisturizes my skin and still makes me feel clean and fresh. SO uses Right Guard (spray) for his deodorant and he likes how it works for him. For toothpaste, we prefer Tom's of Maine or Arm and Hammer since it does the job (especially the whitening) without any harsh ingredients.

[linguist]

The regular Excedrin is exactly identical to the migraine Excedrin.

this is true, but some types of excedrin do have different formulations. the standard formulation for extra-strength excedrin (and thus the migraine formula) is 250mg acetominophen, 250mg aspirin, 65mg caffeine. however, excedrin pm has no caffeine and includes diphenhydramine hcl (benadryl, basically), the tension headache formula has no aspirin, and the back and body pain formula has no caffeine and buffered aspirin.

[muses_nightmare]

400mg gel caps have been available for many, many years here. I'm glad I live in Canada.

I second that!

[protege]

Back to dish-washing soap... Add me to the people who use name-brand stuff. I've tried the cheap shit, and it didn't seem to work as well. It seemed that if I didn't use Dawn, it took longer (not to mention, more of the stuff) to get the grease off of my pots and pans. I also noticed, that the stuff works well on greasy engine parts too. I figured, if it can easily dissolve the grease on old MGB parts, then it will work fine in the kitchen

[Boozy]

I don't see why there would be a restriction on the 400 size, though, as the 200 size is freely available and it's as easy to swallow two as it is to swallow one.

That's what I was thinking!

If someone can buy a bottle of 20 200mg caplets, why would 10 400mg caplets require a prescription?

I buy the extra strength because I almost always need to take two regular strength, and buying the 400mg gel caps are cheaper per dose.

400mg gel caps have been available for many, many years here. I'm glad I live in Canada.

[Rapscallion]

Boozy's in Canadalandialand. 400 mg ibuprofen is available over here, or it was many moons back. I don't see why there would be a restriction on the 400 size, though, as the 200 size is freely available and it's as easy to swallow two as it is to swallow one.

Of course, the real answer is to have a better-educated and aware public, but there's too many stupid people.

Rapscallion

[Shalom]

Regarding brands vs. generics: As others said, pharmaceuticals are different from other products. There's no FDA requiring equivalency studies to be done on toilet paper, to name one example, such that the manufacturers of the generics have to prove that they wipe your butt as efficiently as the brands.

There's also a tremendous amount of marketing aimed at convincing the consumers to buy the brand, or even to buy one brand over another, but they do have to be very careful what they say. They aren't allowed to come straight out and say, Advil works better than Motrin, or Tylenol works better than generic APAP, because there isn't any proof of that and they would be "misbranding" it, as the law calls it. So they just say things like "Tylenol contains the active ingredient doctors recommend most." or "FACT 1: The medicine in Advil® is the #1 doctor recommendation for joint pain.*" It implies that it specifically means Advil, but if you read it carefully, nowhere does it say that the medicine in Motrin® isn't any better. Also note that * there: it points to a footnote that says *Among OTC pain relievers. Use as directed. Yes, among OTC pain relievers, ibuprofen (which is of course the medicine in Advil, as well as Motrin, Nuprin, and a raft of generics) is the most recommended; among prescription pain relievers, though, which may represent a much larger share of the market, maybe it's not the most recommended. I know I personally dispense more naproxen than ibuprofen for arthritis, although this varies by store and by doctor; ibuprofen tends to be used for short-term things like dental pain. People don't like to be on things long-term that have to be taken four times daily.

For kicks sometime, read the claims in the commercials with a more cynical eye, and see if you can find where they weaseled on these claims. Try to see where they're implying more than they can legally claim if they say it outright, and how they're trying to force the audience to misinterpret what they say to their benefit. I find this a fun game for a rainy afternoon.

(I remember a MAD magazine article from around 1962 where they went into this in detail. EG: sale on lightbulbs, with a footnote reading "Any left in stock". When yoiu get there, you find that this means any bulbs with left-handed thread in stock. If you find any, and you have left-handed light sockets, you're golden, otherwise you've got to pay full price. Those guys were ahead of their time, I tell you.)

So, a funny thing happened recently. One of the biggest factories that makes OTC liquid medications got shut down by the FDA for some deficiencies in the manufacturing process. This meant that brand name Motrin suspension, brand name Tylenol syrup, and other drugs made by that same factory were recalled and have been unavailable for about two years now. I've had plenty of patients who insisted on getting the brand name medications, even when they could have gotten Medicaid to pay for the generic. (Of course then they want Medicaid to pay for the brand, which they can whistle for, because Medicaid's not stupid. Sometimes they want me to bill the generic and give them the brand, and they'd pay me the difference in price. This is illegal, and I won't do it, but that's a fratch for another thread.) So now, the brand names are unavailable, and only generics can be had. The mothers are learning, slowly, that the generic ibuprofen works every bit as well (or as poorly) as the brand. I find this hilarious, because what it amounts to is that the drug company has shot itself in the coprorate foot with this prolonged recall and shutdown. Their whole market share was based on the (mis-)perception that their product was somehow better than the competition; once the customer base learned that it's the same stuff, even if the company does get their factory re-opened, nobody's going to want to pay their premium anymore.

I should point out that in some cases, brands and generics shouldn't be interchanged willy-nilly. These are generally drugs with narrow therapeutic indexes. Thyroid medications come to mind; also warfarin, phenytoin, and a few others. I've also heard anecdotal evidence that one particular generic of Wellbutrin-XL, although allegedly bio-equivalent, isn't in fact, and peaks earlier and runs out earlier than the brand, causing therapeutic failure. For the most part, though, there's no real difference.

My mom always told me that with medicine, it's not the just the brand of acetamenophine you're taking but also the "carriers" in it. Tylenol has better "carriers" so it will work better than the generic CVS brand or whatever. She also said that's how different ones work for different parts of the body. The headache one has special carriers that make it focus on your head, the back pain ones focus on your back. I dunno how true that is. My mom is smart but also...well. you know.

I don't think so. Down that road lies homeopathy, whose promoters claim that the base "remembers" what used to be in it before you diluted it out so far that there isn't a single molecule of active ingredient left.

The headache acetaminophen is exactly identical to the back pain acetaminophen. The regular Excedrin is exactly identical to the migraine Excedrin. The athlete's-foot Lamisil is exactly identical to the jock-rash Lamisil. The Claritin allergy syrup is exactly identical to the Claritin hives syrup (except that the latter costs $2 more). Benadryl allergy tablets are exactly identical to Unisom sleep-tabs. I could probably go on... the basic idea is that they're trying to get more shelf space allotted. If the same product shows up in more than one place, they'll sell more of it.

The only acetaminophen that's different from the rest of them is Tylenol Arthritis, which is an extended release formulation. All it means is that you take them every 8 hours rather than every 4 hours. It doesn't mean, though, that there are special fillers in there that direct it straight to your knees.

(Of course there are always those who don't read labels, figure more milligrams = better medicine, and take them like the regular ones. Then wind up with liver damage. Remember, kids, maximum safe dosage in someone without previous liver damage is 4000mg per 24 hours, and they're making noises about reducing that.)

For the longest time, I couldn't find no-name 400mg ibuprofen gel caps. When I finally did, they worked just as well - except the gels caps were huge and very difficult to swallow. So it's back to Advil for me.

Not sure where you're posting from, but in the USA, by law any ibuprofen over 200mg per dosage unit requires a prescription, and I don't think the prescription ones are available in anything but tablets.

[BlaqueKatt]

She also said that's how different ones work for different parts of the body. The headache one has special carriers that make it focus on your head, the back pain ones focus on your back. I dunno how true that is. My mom is smart but also...well. you know.

um wow that's an "interesting" take on how pain meds work, and not at all accurate.

NSAIDs-NSAIDs contain ingredients that block the enzymes responsible for making prostaglandins, which are chemicals that cause damaged tissues to swell. When tissues swell, nerve impulses to the brain become more frequent. Your ibuprofen pill disrupts this process by limiting the number of pain signals that reach the brain, giving you relief

Narcotics-When narcotics, also called opioids, dissolve in the bloodstream, they attach to the proteins that take pain signals to the brain. This disrupts the pain cycle. Narcotics also enter the brain, and change the way pain is felt. In other words, they do not take pain away, they simply allow the brain to interpret pain differently.

Read more: How Does Pain Medication Work?

[DrFaroohk]

My mom always told me that with medicine, it's not the just the brand of acetamenophine you're taking but also the "carriers" in it. Tylenol has better "carriers" so it will work better than the generic CVS brand or whatever. She also said that's how different ones work for different parts of the body. The headache one has special carriers that make it focus on your head, the back pain ones focus on your back. I dunno how true that is. My mom is smart but also...well. you know.

[Ginger Tea]

For the longest time, I couldn't find no-name 400mg ibuprofen gel caps. When I finally did, they worked just as well - except the gels caps were huge and very difficult to swallow.

You sure they were meant to be taken oraly?

[Boozy]

...and I always buy the extra strength advil gel caps for my migraines.

I love those. They are one of the few over-the-counter meds I will buy name-brand.

For the longest time, I couldn't find no-name 400mg ibuprofen gel caps. When I finally did, they worked just as well - except the gels caps were huge and very difficult to swallow. So it's back to Advil for me.