Blog #5

Honestly, this blog assignment made me struggle what I should write about. To write something thoughtful here you need to live in that culture: have some medicines your family always used, see ads on TV, visit a doctor and go to pharmacy's. With my 7.5-month experience in US (fortunately, with no suddenly appeared illnesses) it is extremely difficult to talk about this topic. But I will try to make my point explicit enough.

First of all, I'm the one who is an exception from majority of people who take brand-name medicine because "it helps them better". For me usually they work worse. The worst situation was with allergy. It seems that I was always allergic to something: at first, it was complete milk intolerance, then it disappeared, but now is replaced with tree pollen allergy (spring is coming!) that also goes with severe food allergy. So problem with antihistamines was always urgent. At some point I got used to a medicine with Cetirizine as main component, so it stopped helping me. I needed a replacement and really fast. 

First choice recommended by doctor was Claritine (at least some brand names are the same). This brand is hugely advertised on TV (even ads are the same as described in a post about Claritine published before mine - colorless world becoming colorful). Average price is about 5$ for 10 pills. But they didn't work. At all. I got only side effects - dizziness, drowsiness, but no actual effect. So I came to the pharmacy again and ask for equivalent pills, something that can help me. So I got another pills with name Lorahexal (it is not available in US). The same antihistamine - Loratadine, the same concentration - 10 mg. But price is different - 50 cents for 10 pills. 10 times difference. Less side effects - Claritine may affect liver and kidney, Lorahexal - only liver. And Lorahexal actually worked for me. 

So my choice is for generics.  If now I get prescribed new medicine, I will definitely look for other names that offer the same active ingredient. And yes, they work better. Maybe it is "opposite placebo effect" - I don't want to spend more money for the same product, so I convince myself that cheaper pill will work better than more expensive one, so I can save money. This can also be an explanation. But while it works I have no reason to change it.