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 Robert Downey Jr. 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 Bobby rolling his eyes and taking a deep breath.
Edit: Tony Start -> Robert Downey Jr. I didn’t know that Tony Stark was a character Robert Downey Jr. played 🤦♂️
ITT: Americans who can’t fathom generic medicine names
Tylenol isn’t the medicine, paracetamol is. I love having grown up in a European country which mandates pharmacies to very clearly inform you, not just in some fuck ass place, but repeat to you 3 times, that there is a cheaper generic version which does the same thing.
This is probably the worst example to choose, because in the US the generic name is acetaminophen. This is a case where the brand name actually unites understanding of a drug whose chemical name differs by location.
That being said, I still agree with the spirit, let’s stick to referring to the drug and not the brand.
Touché, though I love knowing names like paracetamol or acetaminophen, ibuprofen, diclofenac, acetylsalicylic acid etc.
I can’t come up with many names because I don’t remember every single drug, but when I see a drug, I always read the chemical, never the brand, and I’m glad for my country and my parents for that.
I particularly like knowing acetylsalicylic acid because knowing that name helps you understand why really old bottles of Aspirin smell like vinegar: the acetic acid and the salicylic acid have begun to separate, and acetic acid is the active ingredient in vinegar!
This is a case where the brand name actually unites understanding of a drug whose chemical name differs by location.
Except we don’t have Tylenol in most countries where it’s called paracetamol.
We have Panadol, Panamax, Calpol, Herron and Hedanol.
If it wasn’t for ER, Scrubs, Greys Anatomy and a bunch of other American media, I’d have no idea that Tylenol and acetaminophen are the same thing as Panadol and paracetamol.
Standard Tylenol and standard Panadol are different dosages too. Regular strength Tylenol is 325mg, standard Panadol (and every other paracetamol brand I’ve seen for adults) is 500mg, which is the “extra strength” of Tylenol.
Standard Tylenol and standard Panadol are different dosages too. Regular strength Tylenol is 325mg, standard Panadol (and every other paracetamol brand I’ve seen for adults) is 500mg, which is the “extra strength” of Tylenol.
We have enough liver problems in the US without pushing more acetaminophen/paracetamol on people. 😅
In France there are plenty of people who ask for Dafalgan or neurofen but have no idea what paracetamol or ibuprofen are.
Yeah, there are clueless people everywhere, but I’m still glad that it’s easy to get generic medicine.
To be fair, you cannot force people to buy generic, let people make their own, though preferably informed, decisions.
I do. I extend it beyond medicines as well. Corporations have spent lots of money for their brands to be household names. They don’t control my language.
Specifically to medicine, I will note that the generic name actually carries information that the brand name does nothing for. Lisinopril and enalopril are the same medication class, act similar. Amlodipine, nimodipine, nicardipene are all the same class. Those generic names have important meaning.
Oh, you want facial tissues? Why didn’t you ask?
Sure, here’s some acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
Don’t you mean bleach wipes?
Corporations have spent lots of money for their brands to be household names.
Corporations are terrified of their name becoming genericized, though. At least in the US, a company can lose it’s protection of the use of their name if they don’t fight it being used for things that are not their product. For example, “Dumpster” used to be a trademarked name for a large outdoor garage bin. It became so popular that every large outdoor garbage bin was called a dumpster, and now everyone making and selling them can call it a dumpster without getting sued
Good on you for including a written description of the image but… “picture of the actor Tony Stark”?
Edit: or are these descriptions automatically generated?
I wrote it myself. What’s wrong with it??
Paracetamol
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
What? That’s what they’re called
Isn’t Paracetamol a brand name for acetaminophen?
Edit: just googled it, apparently they’re both generic names for the same thing (like aspirin / acetylsalicylic acid)
Yup, that’s what the meds are called.
The only reason I’d ever use a brand name is if I genuinely need a specific brand (I have allergies so there are some brands I can’t have because of the inactive ingredients they use) or if I physically can’t pronounce the generic name.
Diclofenac is a prime example. No matter how many times I study the word and practice, I can’t stop myself from saying “dick flen ick” when I get to the chemist. Which is just so wrong. So I ask for “the generic Voltaren”
But I’m also just as likely to ask for a drug by its class if I can’t pronounce the name.
Eg: the beta blockers I used to be on, I’d have to think really, really hard to say “Propranolol” because otherwise I’d end up accidentally saying “propofol”. Not too big of a deal because obviously If I’m picking up a prescription for Propranolol and I ask for propofol the pharmacist is just going to chuckle and correct me. But to avoid it I’d just say “I’m here to pick up a my beta blocker script for, [name] [birthdate]”.
I’m a prescriber in the US and the name that people will commonly use varies by drug and by region. It’s also influenced by whether that medication is even available generically due to patents (if that’s the right legal word) on medications being decently long when they first come out.
I agree it’s a mess
Generic drug names are widely used in the UK and europe - we don’t have US style advertising. There are brands but they don’t cut through in the same way when generics are so widely known and mandated for prescriptions coming from the NHS too.
Benadryl isn’t even a specific drug, it’s just a brand with different drugs in different countries (cetirizine in the UK). I’d just say “antihistamine”.
Also brand name drugs are largely a scam - pharmaceuticals are heavily regulated and generics are the exact same drug. Save yourself some money, learn the generic names and buy those. Otherwise you’re just paying the drugs company for their advertising and the big price mark up for their profit as a “premium” brand.
Here in Portugal the prescriptions even say how much the generic medicine should cost, so that you immediately know if the pharmacy is trying to sell you more expensive medicine.
generics are the exact same drug
Yes but. From what I’ve heard, sometimes when switching to a generic, there might be subtle differences in manufacturing that affect how an individual absorbs it. For something minor - an off the shelf pain killer - probably not a problem. For someone where it’s imperative that they maintain a certain blood level of the drug, some caution is a good idea.
Medicine schools in anywhere except USA. Farmacists, medics, nurses, life rescuers, hospitals, social workers. They’re all encouraged to use the active components of medicines and not commercial brand names. Specially because there are differences in regulations and sometimes the commercial names don’t carry the same formulation in other markets, or are US specific. Tylenol for example doesn’t exist in Latin America. But you can find many other brands and presentations of paracetamol as acetaminophen.
Of course Tylenol exists in LatAm! At least in Brazil it does…but we buy paracetamol because its cheaper
Case in point. The pharmaceutical market in Brazil doesn’t look anything like the one in Colombia, Venezuela or Ecuador. Because each country has their own sanitary regulations body.
I was going to say. That was just common practice in my native country. We did use the most common brand names sometimes, but even then we used them interchangeably (if we asked for Nurofen we really meant ibuprofen and didn’t care if we got another brand; like asking for a kleenex)
Tylenol for example doesn’t exist in Latin America
it absolutely does, what?
that said, agreed
I live in Australia. Over here it seems to be an even toss-up between Panadol, Panamax, or paracetamol when people are talking, in my experience. Nurofen (ibuprofen) doesn’t get the same treatment tho, people usually use the generic name for some reason.
stop taking benadryl. it’s been obsolete for decades and has really nasty side effects.
Does anybody else get bothered by the term meds being used for OTC stuff? I always associate “meds” and “medication” with anything prescribed by a doctor. OTC I just call by whatever name it is, like ibuprofen or Tylenol. “meds” is vague because you don’t want to tell people what your medical condition is but it still implies that there is something more serious going on or it really is too hard to say the name of the medicine. Taking OTC isn’t really a big deal so there’s no reason to be vague.
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