What to Expect When Purchasing Generic Medication

You've just returned home from your local pharmacy with a filled prescription for your routine medication, but just as you are about to take a pill out of the vial for your next dose, your heart skips a beat as you see pills that look completely nothing like the medication you usually get. You double check the name of the medication on the label only to find a name that seems to have more letters in it then humanly possible and impossible to pronounce.

This act happens thousands of times every day in homes across America and could be avoided with better patient education in regards to FDA approved generic medications. As this scenario plays out many patients immediately jump to the conclusion that someone filled their medication wrong or gave them someone else's medication by accident. Chances are that your prescription was filled as prescribed only with a less expensive generic medication that is identical to the brand medication you were getting before.

Upon this discovery most of us go back to the pharmacy either ready with fighting words or a steady argument in place only to be assured by the pharmacist that the medication in fact is a generic medication and is what was prescribed.

So how do you know what to expect when receiving a generic medication in terms of what appears on your label and in your bottle? Here are a few areas in which generic medications stand out from their brand counterparts. Recognizing that these differences exist and yet it is the same medication can help you remain calmer when discovering unusual pills in your bottle and will lead to better education from the pharmacist when you call or return with questions. Please note that the below information, while correct, should not be your source for proof of an accurately filled medication. If you have any doubts you should contact your pharmacist before taking the medication. With that said, most pharmacies make sure the patient is aware of the new generic medication before leaving the pharmacy.

Some differences: