no they didn't give me a generic they gave me a whole different drug altogether, i looked it up on line and it said that it was only sold in SA and that it was for something else but that it also worked for sleep. i wanted to get some sleep so badly that i took it when i knew i shouldn't have. I went against my better judgement and took a risk. Your correct most of the stuff is ok as long as you match it up to the USA name brand, but i made the mistake of taking something I wasn't sure of and by giving the pharmacist to much credit. I will never make that mistake again.
Quote: (02-09-2011 08:50 PM)oldnemesis Wrote:
Quote: (02-09-2011 12:10 PM)Arobin Wrote:
What do guys on here do about getting prescription drugs in South America? I'm taking Doxycycline for malaria / acne, but before I left the travel clinic warned me that in South America, the rate of counterfeit drugs is something like 40%.
"Counterfeit" has several meanings, being fake is only one of them. Wth drugs it typically means the drug is being made and sold without getting a license. The active components, dosage and manufacturing is exactly the same; the thing which makes the drug counterfeit in this case is that the distributor does not pay any money to the patent holder. Obviously it has no effect on the drug effectiveness.
I'd say there is nothing to worry about except the dosage. Remember that "one pill" is NOT a dosage, check how many milligrams the capsule is. A lot of drugs which are sold outside US have higher active component concentration, so for example if you're prescribed 250mg twice a day, make sure you don't get 500mg tablets.
Quote: (02-09-2011 02:00 PM)Hard2Handle Wrote:
i wouldn't do it. i learned the hard way. I was in Colombia in December and ran out of Ambien. So i asked the pharmacy to give me a sleep aid and he assured me that this stuff was good. This one pill ruined the rest of my trip.
Did they give you generic Ambien (Zolpidem) or did they give you some other sleep aid pill? If you got generic, was the active dose the same? A typical US pill is 5mg, and most adults typically take two (1-2 tablets is suggested), while in Thailand I bought 10mg tablets; taking two of those would be equivalent of taking four US tablets, and would likely lead to what you described.