[OC] Anyone else insist on using the generic name for all meds?
[OC] Anyone else insist on using the generic name for all meds?
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12917886
Image: 4 panels organized in a rectangle following a sequential order like a comic strip. The first panel is of a man with a very serious face stating, "Hey man, got any diphenhydramine?" The second panel is a grainy picture of the actor Tony Stark with a slightly inquisitive face and saying, "What's that?" The third panel is an identical copy of the first image and saying, "Benadryl the allergy medicine." The fourth and final panel is a grainy picture of Tony Stark rolling his eyes and taking a deep breath.
This meme is based off of a real life experience. I knew a guy that was taking NyQuil to go to sleep. I told him he'd save a lot of money and his liver if he just bought diphenhydramine since that's the substance in NyQuil that's making him drowsy. He said. "What's that?" I obviously responded, "Benadryl the allergy medicine," and he seriously sighed and rolled his eyes at me. He was so sick of my crap 😆
Edit: Yay!! I'm so happy people like a meme I created 😁
Of course, generic terms for everything! A regular discussion should not be a brand endorsement
That's one thing I like about my home state. Everything here is independent but man it's annoying talking with people born out of state and refer to everything using brand names I have never heard of. It gets especially annoying when there are two prominent competitors making these people even more unintelligible.
If you see him again you should advise him to not use diphenhydramine as a regular sleep aid due to it being a Anticholinergic which have negative long term effects on cognitive function.
Ketorolac, Ceterizine, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, I sometimes don't even know what the brand names actually are.
People say "Advil" and I'm like, "what's that?"
People say “Advil” and I’m like, “what’s that?”
Or even worse, "Motrin"
i refer to them by their purpose. antihistamine, analgesic, laxative, etc.
What do you do for medications with multiple purposes?
usually just say whatever purpose is relevant to the context. if I need to be hyper-specific for some reason I'll just say the drug's name and maybe list off what I'm using it for. like "im taking seroquel as a sleep aid" if im talking to a medical professional since they would probably ask for the brand anyway in case of something like a recall, and would likely want to know i'm not taking it as an antipsychotic.
I should do this. I try to use the active ingredient name but can’t always translate back and forth with brand name.
I don’t use any of them enough to know the differences in how they affect me. If I twist my ankle, I want a “pain reliever” and will look for the one that claims to help reduce inflammation
It’s more honest. I keep wanting to, but can’t make myself. Most of the time I’m getting generic or store brand “same active ingredient as …”, so why reward the branding efforts of a company I’m not patronizing?
Not autistic (never been tested, wouldn't surprise me though).
Anyway, I work... medically adjacent. IT support for medical folks.
Being precise with your medications and dosages is much appreciated by everyone involved. Keep it up!
Also, OP, depending on locale, NyQuil can have different things in it, including being up to 10% ethanol.
But yeah, 50mg of diphenhydramine HCL, and a shot or a beer would do it for most.
Join the medical field and get the worst of both. Generic and various brand names are thrown around for every drug at random all the time. And if you don't know what someone is talking about when they ask for a specific med, someone could die! Not really but it's very annoying
Even worse is in the stupid system (I have to use), some things are actually HARD CODED in brand names, and some in generic. So when you're trying to chart a patient that tells you they're taking X, Y, and Z, you have to go digging through to find the right stuff.
I usually use the name of the drug when there are multiple brands with trade names for it, or when there are trade-name drugs that use multiple formulations with different ingredients.
For example, famotodine is the active agent in Pepcid and Zantac. Omeprazole is sold as Prilosec and Losec. Acetaminophen is in Tylenol, Tempra, and Panadol
When I want Pseudoephedrine and not phenylephrine, they're both branded under the trade name 'Sudafed' but only one of them really works for sinus pressure.
When I want Dextromethorphan or Guaifenesin (active ingredients in Robitussin) there are lots of other brands (Nyquil, dayquil, etc) that deliver them and knowing which drug is which and what part they do means I can pick which one to use if I don't want the other one's shitty side effects.
Yeah but for a reason. I just don't want to advertise for a random Pharma company. They're not paying me, so why would I? I also refrain from referring to other things that are known by brand name by said brand name, like paper tissues
The real question is why do you like helping corporations own the chemicals? Don't give them that W. It's not Benadryl on every bottle of diphenhydramine.
Acetaminophen, you see the medicine!
I only just googled the lyrics. Always thought he was just saying "youcetaminophen!"
Yes, I've been doing it for years.
HAHA yes yes I do that
I have this problem with organic chemistry more broadly. On the one hand, I understand that rattling off the IUPAC name of a compound is much less concise and harder to get right than just saying the brand name or chemical name (which, for pharma, is often just as bullshit of a name as the brand name). On the other, you come across names like the Eschenmoser-Claisen rearrangement vs the Johnson-Claisen rearrangement, or the Suzuki vs Stille vs Negishi vs Kumada vs Hiyama/Denmark vs Sonogashira* cross couplings. Each set consists of fundamentally the same reaction with slight variations in the specific reagents. Just saying e.g. "organozinc" instead of "Negishi" would be so much more descriptive. The authors' names often aren't even that helpful in an attributive sense. For instance, some of the cross couplings were actually first reported by someone else in that list (though IIRC everyone got at least one), and most of the chemists published work on at least one of the other reactions at some point.
* Okay fine Sonogashiras are a little different what with the copper co-catalyst, but still, same mech at Pd.
You insist on using the technical name for a drug, yet call Tony Stark an "actor" ;)
To be honest, if the gif (pro: jif) I found wasn't named Tony Stark.gif, I would have thought it was Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr is the generic name for Tony Stark.
He could have had a small part in an in universe movie, you don't know. He was bangin hot actresses before the kidnapping, where do you think he met em?
You mean the name you can use to get it in a pharmacy, and tells WTF is on the pills?
Do you tell people to use a Dell Inspiron when they say they need to type some text in an airplane?
Telling someone to use a Dell Inspiron is the exact opposite of this, we're being generic not specific.
We use brand names for generic items constantly. You act like that's a crazy thing to do
It's a rare exception for a few things that had a single brand when they became popular or that change a lot from one brand to another... or for some people, for medicine.
People certainly do not use brand names constantly. To the point that you can't even replace the name of most things around you by their brand and come out with a comprehensible sentence.
I think he's meaning the opposite is crazy.
Calling something by it's chemical name over it's much better known and recognizable brand name is kinda dumb and asking for complications.
You can argue the "free marketing" aspect like everyone else in this comment section but just like sawsall, seran wrap, and Advil/Aleve/aspirin there's a reason people bring up the brand and not the specific chemicals