Generic medications

The Generic Medical Implementation Plan also specifies that the systems contractor s quality assurance unit must conduct regular audits of the systems contractor s occupational health program and that an annual audit of the program must be conducted by PMCD-designated health care professionals. Reports of all audits are forwarded to the clinic medical director and the medical administrator for prompt action. Nonconformance requires a written plan for corrective action. 

U.S. Army. 1998a. Generic Medical Support Plan. February. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. U.S. Army Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization. 

Reassure patients that high-quality generic drugs exist in abundance, and teach patients, when using generic medications, to stay with the same source of supply or generic prodnct. 

The therapist may encoimter the clinical ramifications of bioavailability in regard to the issue of generic medications. Bioavailability is the benchmark measurement for determining bioequivalence between brand name and generic products. With many medications, generic formulations meet bioavailability standards and can provide economical alternatives to brand name products. This can be an important issue for psychiatric patients with limited financial resources, who often will simply... 

Ascione, F.J., Kirking, D.M., Gaither, C.A., and Welage, L.S. Historical overview of generic medication policy. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association 2001 41 567-577. 

In this case the first name listed (Prozac), which represents a popular antidepressive medication, is the brand name of the medication. This name was chosen by the company (Lilly Research Laboratories) that produced the medication and originally petitioned the FDA for the patent. The second name, often put in parentheses, is the chemical name of the product. If a generic medication is available it will be referred to by the chemical name (see chapter 3, for a more in-depth explanation of the difference... 

The cost of medication is not only a personal issue but a political one as well. According to political observations, the cost of medication has become so high that desperate measures are needed to examine the situation and plans made to address and combat these costs (Serafini, 2(XK)a). With medication costs rising and changes in insurance reimbursement patterns, social workers are often faced with the dilemma of whether a client should use a generic medication or a brand name. The most obvious way to cut these costs is to substitute generic medications for the more expensive brand names if they are available. 

Professionals should educate their clients about the differences between generic and brand-name medications so that an educated choice can be made and clients will not think of the pill as something different or less effective. There are laws in virtually all states that allow pharmacists to substitute generic drugs for many brand-name products. Some states actually require that a generic must be substituted if it is available (Heidari, 2000). If a client does not want a generic medication or if the provider does not want the client to have one, the prescription should state this specifically. The social worker should check to see that the prescriber has written the words dispense as written or do not substitute so that the pharmacist is required to fill the prescription with the brand-name product requested. 

Cyclobenzaprine is available as a generic medication and is relatively inexpensive. 

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