How can I figure out if I will need Dr. Forster to write a prescription for me? Don’t refills happen automatically? I set them to refill automatically on Walgreens.. Why does Dr. Forster say I have a prescription approved when the pharmacist says I don’t have any refills? Prescription labels contain a great deal of information, but navigating the intricacies …
Generic Medications
I have long been a strong proponent of generic medications. Recently, however, several of my patients have expressed concerns about the generic medications that they have received. This led me to do some research on generic pharmaceutical companies. The first thing to know about generics is that they are made by many different manufacturers in many different countries. This is …
Medications for an Emergency
Several people recently requested medications to have on hand in case an emergency disrupts the supply. Here are some guidelines for these requests. This is from a useful post written by a doctor after a local emergency… “Ask your doctor for an additional prescription, explain what you’re doing and tell your doctor the meds will be going into storage,” says …
Refill Dilemmas
“Why do you only give me a month’s supply of medication when you approve refills?” This is a pretty common question and this blog post explains why “automatic refills” are no necessarily the magic solution to the problem of getting your medications. A refill is a quick thing to handle, right? You call a number and press a few numbers, …
Medication Cost Savings – Update 2017
Last year the New York Times reviewed two websites that offered significant medication cost savings, for those without adequate insurance and, even for those with good insurance who are getting expensive medications. Since then we have had a lot more experience working with patients to help reduce medication costs and we can definitely say that these sites can help reduce …
Pill Minder and Information Source
David Pogue recently reviewed 47 apps that can serve as a pill minder and information source and selected one that clearly outshone the others. But first, why is this important? This is some information from his article in Yahoo Finance… An estimated 187 million Americans (58%) are on at least one prescription drug. (Source: Network for Excellence in Health Innovation …
Common Over the Counter Medications Linked to Dementia
Common over-the-counter medications may increase your risk for dementia. That is the startling finding of a recently published journal article which used a number of approaches to examine the possible risk of using medications that have anticholinergic effects. This includes many psychiatric medications as well as many common over the counter antihistamine medications, medications for sleep, and for GI problems: …
Lowering Medication Costs – Update
The New York Times recently reviewed two websites that offered to substantially reduce the cost of psychiatric medications for those without adequate insurance coverage. We’ve updated the section of this website that provides links to information about lowering the costs of medications and that mentions the option of purchasing medications from Canada as well as information about these two sites. …
Pregnancy and Mental Health
This past week, a colleague at UCSF, Dr. Anna Glezer, wrote to let me know about a new patient-centered informational website she is launching focused on issues related to pregnancy and mental health. It’s called Mind Body Pregnancy, and she started it because in her reproductive psychiatry practice she was finding many patients asking similar questions. She wanted to reach beyond just those she is able to see in clinic and …
Antipsychotics
I just wanted to note the addition of a page on atypical antipsychotics which I added to the existing page on antidepressants and hope to compliment with a page on mood stabilizers. This page, and its companions, are all intended to be adjuncts to treatment, a place for patients with an interest in knowing more about medications and medication changes …
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