it does say that theres only 20 in the label, but im more pissed about the waste. everything couldve been put on 3 trays
The only time I’ve seen something like this is when my doctor really wanted me to try an anti-depressant, so he gave me a perpetual supply of free samples.
A doctor said this and it was such a good metaphor: imagine that you have a 3000 year old machine (which no one understands anymore) with a bunch of cogs and gears, and you’re looking down at it from above. You’re trying to fix a gear that is slightly out of alignment further down in the machine, you can’t really tell which one it is but you know roughly which area, and to fix it you drop a rock into the machine and watch it fall down.
That’s what we’re doing with SSRIs. We’re dropping a rock that manipulates our serotonin, which gives a bunch of effects but not the one we’re after. The one we’re after is somewhere down the line. It’s affected by processes that are affected by the serotonin somehow. We’re not exactly sure which one it is, but we know that if we drop the rock in there it will make the gears align sooner or later.
Which is why it takes time, and why it has some odd effects on people sometimes.
edit: added a detail I missed, to make it clearer.
That’s a good metaphor! I’m not sure about the rock though, throwing a rock into a complicated machine doesn’t seem like the best idea. I’d consider replacing it with oil, where it needs to cover the gears at the top first before it can drip down.
I totally understand that this is a necessary process for anti depressants but damn it sounds scary as fuck. “Eat these brain chemicals and come back and see us in a couple weeks”
“How does it work?”
“Fuck if I know it’s kind of like throwing a rock at an old machine. Just make sure you let me know if you experience any of the long extensive list of potential side effects!” Like damn im for sure not a doctor but that sounds like russian roulette with brain pellets to me. If Ecstasy (which was invented by a pharmacutical company to be medication) can permanantly fuck up your brain I would bet money that these pills certainly do the same. I bite my tongue anytime someone mentions they are considering it or talking to a doctor about it, their choice. But man it scares the fuck out of me. Ill just continue to sleep all the time and stay angry lol
Yes and no, also i am not a medical professional.
For classical antidepressants Chemicals tend to function pretty fast but the effect is designed to be subtle because you need to live a normal life, capable of dealing with and feeling both ups and downs. not be perpetually smiling or brain dead.
After some time “a few weeks” of taking a daily dose your body and mind adjust to the subtle changes causing a stable therapeutic effect. At least thats what I understand is the idea.
But lately there is also sm of a psychedelic renaissance of medicine and they work entirely different where a single dose within a therapeutic setting creates a longer lasting feeling of increased well being.
Nasal Ketamine seems to receive allot of attention, near instantly improving the condition. They tend to need 1 dose every 5 weeks so its less addictive then classic medicine. But i do admit it instant improvement for treatment resistant medications is a bold claim and still subject of more research.
The side effects can last for weeks. It’s like a really shitty onboarding process. For some, the side effects are not bad. Personally I can say that the first 2 to 4 weeks are usually filled with nausea, extreme fatigue and exhaustion.
The way that these sorts of meds have been described to me is that “they give you a leg up”, meaning it gives you just enough of a “boost” that you might actually follow through on therapy and the strategies it offers.
It has been years now, and still no luck. I’d love to live a normal life, whatever the fuck that means lol
It depends on what you mean by “start working.” The first time I took a sertraline, I felt absolutely baked, but I feel like it took weeks for the desirable effects to take hold.
Then again, my doctor also told me that something like 60% of the effects are a placebo.
Regardless, yes, he would give me like a month of these individal samples at a time. I’m not sure how he swung that. It was like 2003 or 2004.
Why not put them all in one little baggy? That’s how I buy my pills from Rick.
There are many reasons these may be pacakaged this way: from lowering the possibility of accidentally taking the wrong pill to anti-theft.
It would be cheaper for the manufacturer to just put them all in a bottle, so rest assured they wouldn’t do this if the benefits didn’t outweigh the costs.
There’s been a shift away from putting pills in bottles.
IIRC it was pioneered by the NHS (UK), because they found that the mild inconvenience and time of popping out the pills one by one, in comparison to the ease and speed of downing a whole bottle of them, cut down on people attempting suicide by overdose by a surprising amount.
That’s how governments work. Not a single penny spent on making life more worth living, but methods of making suicide somewhat less convenient hits industrial scale production.
Adding that certain markets won’t accept bottles, you must use a blister.
Why is it one per card, bit of a head scratcher, but given the logistics and distribution costs of shipping this format, agree they wouldn’t do this for fun.
I’m willing to believe there’s a reason to have them separated but why would they use such a large packaging for it?
blistering machines used in the pharmaceutical industry usually work with some standard sizes, hence the size of the blister. change parts also cost a small fortune, so it makes no sense to have them tailored for just one product if it works well enough with existing equipment. thay being said, a couple of things below in reply to the whole thread, not just yourself.
to add to the list of reasons one would want them individually packaged, it’s easier to dispense a set amount of pills in this manner, for medicine that needs to be tailored for each user more often (think if you need 5 capsules, you’d get a blister that is weirdly cut by the pharmacist with a pair of scissors - cutting the blister also removes important information like lot number and expiry date). also, it could have some stability issues outside of the blister, so dispensing them naked in bottles might not be the best thing.
for antibiotics and such, it’s also crucial to take each and every dose prescribed so dropping one in the sink accidentally when you’re shaking a bottle is something you’re trying to prevent. the size of the blister would also make it harder to lose around the house or one’s backpack/bag/purse/saddlebags/bag of holding and then not taking your last dose (in addition to the change parts thing mentioned at the start).
individually wrapped bananas are a waste. for critical things like pharmaceuticals, there is more likely than not a good reason for this. look up pharmacovigilance if curious to know more.
Here’s the comment I was looking for! I was going to suggest this might be the issue. (total guess), but it made sense when I saw its the standard size of other blister packs you get.
I also heard that the reason heinz tins dont stack well whilst other brands do is because of how expensive it would be to replace the machines (or parts of the machines) that make the can lids and bases.
So it was a fair assumption that it’s basically the same problem here.
Especially when you consider that it’s probably very few people that need just 1 of a certain pill. Thisnis likely a supply issue with this medication in the multi blister packs, so they gave 20 singles.
first of all why would anyone steal pills? secondly, how is this making it harder?
i think that might be a suicide prevention measure, i remember something about blister packaging helping reduce suicide rates.
You will also often see such packaging used with in hospitals, group homes, and nursing homes. It helps to limit med errors for nurses and cnas and can allow some mentally handicapped people or elderly to have some control over their lives.
It’s not a common packaging you are going to get from a pharmacy unless specified for you by a doctor.
😂 Bro its sad how so many doctors dont really consider most humans adults lol
Adults are the ones usually killing themselves by overdosing. Suicide is final, and survivors of botched attempts praise that they failed to kill themselves. It’s why men have a higher suicide rate, because their method is usually final. Having a packaging that hinders the process of suicide via overdosing is helpful to all involved.
I got a big pack of milka cookies, it was huge…triple the size of their regular…turns out it only came with 2 extra cookies.
It had a huge plastic tray, remind me again why i’m being told to use a paper straw once every 2 years i actually get a straw when manufacturers keep pulling shit like that.
Have you made any effort to change the laws about straws beyond complaining about it on social media?
Why would i change laws for the straws when they are replaced for a good cause.
The point i attempted to make is that that single straw is like half a gram of plastic saved when the manufacturer makes possibly millions of these packages that waste 30x the plastic that is saved on my straw.
We just need a good and effective way to make the manufacturer of these products change their ways. Adding costs/fines/taxes for plastic usage isn’t helping because they just pass those on to us and sneak in a little extra profit.
