Dealing with forged prescriptions
Everyone has their own preferred method of dealing with forged prescriptions. Ryan at EclecticEsoteric recently asked what I would do. It so happens that Andrew at PharmCountry has a related post, so it seems an opportune time…
When you've got a forged or altered prescription, there are two basic things you SHOULD do.
1) Contact the prescriber. Verify that it has been forged or altered.
2) Initiate a PharmAlert, the details of which can be obtained by contacting your state's board of pharmacy. I believe this is how such an alert is usually initiated anyway — I'd say "always" but I haven't worked in every state, so that's impossible for me to know.
PharmAlerts start a cascading reaction. A notice is typically faxed to the pharmacy at the top of the list in your area, and they, in turn, fax to other pharmacies who fax to other pharmacies. You are also supposed to pick up the telephone, and notify the pharmacist at the receiving pharmacy as well, but we rarely do. I should take a picture of the PharmAlert notification map for my area. It's kind of nifty because one of my stores is #1 on the list. If I had to guess, I would say that the seed pharmacies at the top of the lists are probably chosen that way because they are lower volume, and it's thought that they have more time to seed the word along? I have nothing to back this up, I'm only guessing. We are responsible for notifying three pharmacies, whereas everyone lower on the list than us is only responsible for one.
Doctors' offices can also initiate pharmalerts, and often do if a prescription pad is stolen.
There are a couple of things you COULD do beyond these two steps, depending on how crazy you want to be. These include contacting the police, the DEA, and anyone else you might want to contact. It all depends on how zealous you want to be. Me? I don't bother because I don't particularly want to be a law enforcement officer. If I did, I'd work for the DEA. Some pharmacists also take the opportunity to lecture the person about altering a prescription. That's not really my style either. The person already knows they did it, and they know it's wrong. I don't need to beat it into their head, or threaten to call the police on them.
All this changes, though, if you're a habitual offender and/or I suspect there might be organized crime involved. In that case, I verify the script, call the police very quietly, and keep you waiting until the officer arrives, at which point you are arrested. And yes, it always does seem to fall on me to keep the person waiting and so on. I have no idea why. Apparently my poker face is pretty good.
Assuming no drastic measures are taken, I would also say that you shouldn't give the prescription back to the person, but I have seen it done. (An act which never ceases to boggle my mind!) By doing this, you are giving the person another chance to take the script elsewhere. This is unacceptable!
Regardless, I believe it's important to keep whatever action you decide to take low-key and professional. You are not this person's parent. You aren't the police. You are the medication gatekeeper. Politely deny them, do what you must do, and keep the ball rolling.
[tags]Pharmacy, pharmalerts, pharmacy practice[/tags]
The ins and outs of prescribing Chantix (varenicline): an illustrated How-To guide
Chantix is pretty popular these days, and with good reason. It works pretty well. In fact, of all of the people I've talked to, there's not one that's not had success with it. Anecdotal, but nifty. I was dead wrong in my guess that insurers would balk at paying for it. Even medicaid is paying for it in my area, which is truly mind-blowing given how tight they are with their formulary. Even when it's not covered, it's still usually cheaper than buying a month's worth of cigarettes.
What's not so nifty about Chantix are the horrific prescriptions we see for it. Directions that make no sense. Or make sense within a certain context, but probably not the context the prescriber was thinking of. This will become clear shortly.
This is a short post, but it's big because of all of the pictures.
Table of Contents:
- How does Chantix come?
- Normal Chantix Use: prescribing a course of Chantix
- Normal Chantix Use: the first month (photos begin)
- Normal Chantix Use: Month 2 and beyond
- Abnormal Chantix Use and common missteps
Let's play, "Guess the 1950s (women's) tranquilizer"
The folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma recently dug up a car that was buried as a time capsule in 1957. They put a few things in the car before they buried it:
In the trunk, workers meticulously pulled out some of the objects buried with the two-door hardtop to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood a 5-gallon can of leaded gasoline, which went for 24 cents a gallon in those days, and rusted cans of Schlitz beer.
The contents of a "typical" woman's handbag, including 14 bobby pins, lipstick and a bottle of tranquilizers, were supposed to be in the glove box, but all that was found looked like a lump of rotted leather.
Tranquilizers: the solution to all women's ills in the days before men took them seriously. Dysmenorrhea? Have some Valium. Bad day? Valium. Kids acting up? Valium. Dinner didn't come out right? Sprinkle some Valium on it.
So let's see. If I were a bottle of tranquilizers back in 1957, what would I be?
The first benzo approved was Librium, which was discovered in 1954, and re-discovered again in 1957. So it's probably not Librium. Valium, of course, is newer, having been approved in 1963.
The other possibility might be methaqualone (Quaalude), which was discovered in 1955, but wasn't popular until the 60's.
My guess would have to be phenobarbital which was approved back in 1912. What's your guess?
[tags]History, women's issues, tranquilizers[/tags]
Goosebumps and wrong first impressions
I came across this video yesterday, and I've watched it a couple of times, and it still gives me goosebumps. I think it's the synergy between the spontaneous cheering and applause from the crowd and the amazing voice that comes out of someone so unexpected. I wonder if the people even know why and how they're cheering? Or just that they feel something and need to let it out the only way they know how.
Watch the looks exchanged by Simon, Amanda, and Piers at the beginning. There's certainly an "Oh boy, what kind of aural assault is this jackass going to subject us to?" when Paul says he's there to sing opera. Observe later when they realize they're guilty of judging someone based on their looks.
Even the unwashed Philistines in the audience can tell they've seen something extraordinary. Something magical. Even now after repeated viewings, the look on Amanda's face is how I feel inside as the crowd and Paul reach their thunderous crescendo together. Confused, surprised, moved, awed. Watching this ordinary, non-professional get up on stage — bad teeth and all — and belt out something that sounds like THAT. Just, wow. Magnificent.
I'm an unabashed opera lover, and I greatly enjoy artists who sing operatic music. (Josh Groban, Charlotte Church, Sarah Brightman) I've waxed verbose about my love for the libretto "Vide Cor Meum" on my personal blog. In my opinion, Paul's performance here is how Opera SHOULD be, a dynamic interaction between the crowd and the players. None of this hush-hush, stuffed-shirt, pompous-ass bologna we have today. We should feel free to cheer and applaud when something moves us regardless of the environment.
I was shocked to discover that people apparently enjoy opera after reading the comments on this video. What people don't like is the attitude and stigma associated with the genre.
[tags]Opera, Paul Potts, Britain's Got Talent[/tags]
Why wear a candy necklace when you could have Valium necklace instead?
The pharm can get pretty wild and crazy sometimes, and Twix aren't always handy. And let's face it, candy necklaces are for kids. Valium is SO much more stylish:
You, too, can have your very own Valium necklace for the low, low price of $55.62!
No Valium was harmed during the making of this blog post.
[tags]Valium, candy necklace, humor[/tags]
your commitment, your hard work, powered by… your toilet
Today is the day that exactly 0.0032% of the American population — yes, this is a highly scientific measurement — has been waiting for with bated breath: the arrival of Alli. True to the hype, it arrived in grand fashion with its own personal GSK escort — who would later remark that there was no way in hell he'd ever take it himself — in the early afternoon. There had been 3 inquiries about it that morning; all women clutching brochures in their sweaty little paws.
I'm convinced we need to locate this stuff near the diapers, but the store managers all think I'm crazy. Well maybe they should try it. At $60 a pack, maybe we could get a buy-one-get-one sale going. Buy a box of Alli, get a small package of adult diapers for FREE. Win-win, right?
Anyway, so it's here, and it's going to sell moderately well in my home store, which is mostly white middle class. In another of my stores it's going to be kept behind the counter so it won't get stolen. Oh the fun with demographics.
Last week we were accidentally giving away the Alli book for free for almost two days before we realized that they were $6 a whack. Oops. I was wondering how the hell the drug company could afford to give away these beautiful, glossy books — that're nicer than my therapeutics textbooks, by the way — for free when we don't even know how well Alli will do in the long-term. Then I remembered that the drugmakers are Big and Evil, and didn't feel so bad anymore.
I fully expect lots of short-term interest during the first few months, and maybe a couple of Fox News specials on high-profile people shitting their pants unexpectedly — "Paris Hilton messes herself in sundress just days after getting out of jail! Is Alli to blame? News at 11!" — complete with low-quality footage garnered mostly from YouTube that'll show up years later on America's LamestFunniest Home Videos with Bob Sagat.
Oh yes, I expect lots of comedy. Who can resist a good fart joke every now and again?
What's really funny — haha — is that a month's worth of phentermine is cheaper than a pack of OTC Alli, even if you're paying out of pocket. And you won't even need diapers. Amazing!
[tags]Alli, orlistat, dieting, weightloss[/tags]
I'm still not impressed with Tekturna (aliskiren)
One of my more popular posts has been "Do we need Tekturna (aliskiren)?". The comments have been varied, but I still stand by my doubts over its usefulness. Other medbloggers have expressed their doubts as well. And I should state right now that I think Tekturna being on the market is a Good Thing™. I am not against the drug's existence.
In fact, I'm not arguing how efficacious it is. I'm sure it works. If it didn't, it wouldn't be approved. I'm merely questioning its place in current treatment paradigms. To explain what I mean, I'm going to use a crude analogy to compare angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and aliskiren, the only direct renin inhibitor (DRI).
Think of a sink. For whatever reason, you want to keep liquid from going down the drain. Does it make more sense to keep the sink turned off, or to plug the drain directly?
Well obviously if the goal is keeping the drain dry, you'd plug the drain. This is what ARBs do. They prevent specific and non-specific binding at the angiotensin II receptor sites. Tekturna just keeps the sink from turning on and does nothing to block the drain directly. This means there's still going to be non-specific binding at the angiotensin II receptor site. (Incidentally, this non-specific binding is not merely theoretical; if it were, ACEis would be more effective as a class than the ARBs, but instead they are merely comparable.)
Back to my point: Tekturna is more expensive than the ARBs, and it will be for a long time. I don't think having aliskiren as an option is a bad thing. I just question how valuable the drug truly is with less expensive ACE inhibitors and ARBs. Sitting here, it doesn't seem to have a real niche. Would I try Tekturna if nothing else worked? Of course I would. If I were targeting the RAAS, would I reach for it as first-line therapy? Hell no I wouldn't. I'd go for an ACE inhibitor in most cases.
I'm not going to delve into the heated debates about reactive renin production and other similar topics because I suspect that the reality lies somewhere in the middle ground, as it usually does.
In the meantime, I think don't think Tekturna has a meaningful place in current drug therapy. If ARBs do not work, it is unlikely that a DRI will, either. The only time I see it perhaps being useful is if a patient cannot tolerate ACEis or ARBs.
[tags]Medicine, pharmacy, Tekturna, aliskiren, hypertension[/tags]