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Had a call this evening for someone's prescription refill. She wanted me to fill her son's Atarax®. So I go and look in the profile, and what do you know, the boy never got Atarax (or generic hydroxyzine, an antihistamine commonly prescribed for itching or hives) from us in the past. I do see a script from last July for cyproheptadine, which used to be called Periactin®, and which is also an antihistamine and used similarly. The following conversation ensued:
Me: "I don't see that he's ever gotten Atarax here. Closest thing to it is the Periactin he got last summer."
Her: "Oh, yeah, that's what it said on the label, I see it here. But I just call it Atarax."
Me: (
) "Ma'm, that's like taking a container of milk and telling me that you call it orange juice..."
This drives me nuts. Drugs have names for a reason. There's one of the local pædiatricians here, or more accurately one of the girls that works in his office, that prescribes Atarax and tells the parents it's "Kosher Benadryl". Dammit, it's not Benadryl, and whatever makes you think it's kosher either?
Me: "I don't see that he's ever gotten Atarax here. Closest thing to it is the Periactin he got last summer."
Her: "Oh, yeah, that's what it said on the label, I see it here. But I just call it Atarax."
Me: (
) "Ma'm, that's like taking a container of milk and telling me that you call it orange juice..."This drives me nuts. Drugs have names for a reason. There's one of the local pædiatricians here, or more accurately one of the girls that works in his office, that prescribes Atarax and tells the parents it's "Kosher Benadryl". Dammit, it's not Benadryl, and whatever makes you think it's kosher either?
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