I had met people who have a complete knowledge of the generic medicines, yet they still choose the brand without giving any reason.
Why are they doing that?
One of the big things I don’t see mentioned here is that while the “active ingredient” in the medication is the same, all the other stuff in it is not. This also includes the binding agents that hold the med together and also the release mechanisms that control how/when the medicine is absorbed into your body.
For example, generic extended release amphetamine salts don’t release into your body in the same way Adderall XR does, despite being the same medication. While the patent on the drug has expired, the patent on the proprietary release mechanism has not expired. So generics can’t copy it. This could cause the generic to not work as well for some people, or some people could have a reaction to those different ingredients.
Edited: fixed spelling
I was going to say, it does depend on the drug and person. My son had that experience where the insurance flip-flopped to cover generic instead of Adderall, but it did not work at all for him so we had to fight to get it changed back. Since then every year or so insurance plays their game and we have to go through the ritual explaining why it can’t be generic when that becomes the one covered. It shouldn’t be this hard, right?
Because I use a real programming language, tell me what a T is and I’ll start caring
What you don’t like to deal with this mess? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covariance_and_contravariance_(computer_science)
I grew up in a poor household, relative to the other kids I went to school with. While I was in public school, I was bullied for not wearing name brand clothing and because all of my school supplies and snacks and everything was generic brand. I became extremely self-conscious about it, and was always trying to hide what I had, or if I found name brand packaging for something in the trash or on the floor, I’d grab it so I could repackage my stuff and pretend like I totally had name brand stuff. As a young adult when I went to college, I only ever aimed for buying name brand stuff, but it was really hard to do so, considering I was still broke…
Anyways, I eventually matured a little more and realized kids are cruel and the whole thing was dumb. I exclusively go with generic everything now and am, always trying to get the best deal, and I even went back to buying second-hand clothes, cause why not?
All that to say, maybe some people had similar experiences and just never grew out of it.
In addition to the reasons other people mention, placebo is a helluva drug. If you believe the name brand is better, it may actually become more effective for you even if the active ingredients are the same as the generic.
This is why I prefer Advil liquid gels. I’ve had plenty of generic ibuprofen. I’m convinced that Advil is faster acting with 100% efficacy.
Liquid gels are absolutely faster acting than compressed powder. I buy both generic naproxen pills and name brand Aleve liquid gels so that I have two different available delivery mechanisms (and unit prices) for the same active ingredient, and I choose which to take (or to give my dependents) based on the circumstances at the time of use.
Name brands only matter to me when it comes to chips, soda, cereal bars (like nutri-grain), and shampoo. Maybe some others I’m not thinking of. But drugs are def not on that list. The only time I ever requested name brand drugs was when I got a script for Klonopin I didn’t need back when I was an addict and only because I thought it would be cool to have the pills with the little K cut out of the middle, because like I said, addict.
It’s rare, but some people do have adverse reactions to generics, and have to use the name brands.
