...How does this even happen?!
 

So as I said in a previous thread, I'd been moved from 30mg citalopram to eventually 100mg sertraline to 15mg mirtazapine.

The sertraline had NOT been doing the trick the last couple of weeks, so I changed. It had been really bad - side effecty, SI through the roof, sleeping problems.

I was just sitting here sorting out the leftover blister packs of sertraline so I could take it to the pharmacy for disposal and glance at the foil.

30mg citalopram.

Not 100mg sertraline.

HOW exactly does the pharmacy manage to give me the wrong meds?! Surely the prescription on the papers from the doc, specifying sertraline, would ensure they picked up the right stuff?

It explains a thing or two, anyway!

Not good! Sorry to ask, but are you sure you didn't just take some old Citalopram? Though, it sounds as if, if you have a (good, by the way) habit of taking previous meds to the pharmacy to be disposed of, that's unlikely to be the case.

Did the 'script you gave the pharmacy definitely say 'Sertraline'?

Unfortunately, pharmacies do make mistakes - and can be held accountable.

I did wonder if I might have taken some old citalopram by mistake, but I checked my medicine drawer and I definitely disposed of it when I was changed over. I'll be honest I didn't read the prescription papers, but they were just a repeat of the same meds the GP had been giving me for some time - just a quick "still want the same?" "yep"... prints out docs and hands to me.

I suppose it is possible the GP printed off the wrong prescription, but it just seems so odd that this would happen at all!

No harm done at least. I was in a bad place and missed some time off work, but the new meds I'm on are so much better, and I guess I probably wouldn't be on them now if not for this little mix up!

The chemist did that to me before Christmas, I was supposed to have procyclidine, but they gave me (the inside of the box and the leaflet said it was so good job I checked) prochlorperazine. If anyone is unfamilar with procyclidine it helps with muscle stiffness and prochlorperazine is an antipsychotic. They also didnt have my antidepressant either, and they have given me the wrong stuff instead of the procyclidine before.

Unfortunately with the lethal conditions outside and me going away from Christmas it led to me being unmedicated from Christmas eve until 4th Jan. My CPN came and I showed her the wrong stuff, so she said that she was going to see the right stuff in the chemist and give them a darn good grilling.

Anyway she came back about 20 mins later with the right medication and said she had strong words with them, and I had the right stuff (because of them messing around with my antidepressant I refused to take the antidepressant, so she said she was going to talk to my psych about other antidepressant). So now I am having to wean myself back onto my full dose of quetiapine, which is not good.

Unfortunately some chemists are rubbish. My chemist kept on giving me the wrong antidepressant before now. For example I was until this year on Sertraline (an antidepressant) which I have been on for 3 1/2 years, with the same chemist. I always used to have Sertraline made by a company called Dr Reddy's, which was fine. But 6 months ago the chemist gave me ones marked "Sertraline Aurobindo" which made me sick and dizzy. So I complained to my CPN (she says she has another patient who has the same effect as me with the Aurobindo stuff, so I am probably allergic to what is in the Aurobindo stuff), who in turn got in contact with my GP and the chemist to write "do not give Aurobindo under any circumstances" in my notes. But the stupid chemist kept on giving me the Aurobindo stuff and I got fed up with taking them back because my body will not tolerate them. So when my CPN went to complain around the same stuff I told her I was fed up of being messed around all the time, and that to leave the sertraline there as I was fed up of being messed around. So she could see why I was mighty p*****d off with the chemist and said that she would talk to my psych asap about a medication change (which I did want).

When I first started it took me 24 hours from putting in the repeat prescription, and I got the meds. Then they increased it to 48 hours, and at the moment it takes 6 days, and that is without them losing it. Twice they claimed that they didnt have the script and for me to talk to the GP, who checked their records and said that the chemist had it!

So yes, I have lost faith in that chemist. Going back to the prochlorperazine, it was a good job that I did check it and not take it as my CPN said it would have been highly dangerous if I had! If I had taken it I would have spent my whole Christmas in hospital rather than being with my family (albeit unmedicated).

I have also had fits of being unmedicated before, and it's not because I decide to chuck them in the bin, it's always the chemist who is messing me around! My CPN says it's no wonder I go off medication when I get so p****d off with the chemist being so incompetent and that I lose faith in meds entirely. Fortunately so far I have not been sectioned, but that (amongst other things) did lead my being admitted (voluntarily) into hospital last year.

So yes, you do have my sympathy. I am glad your new meds are so much better.

P.S. in my case the label and the repeat did say the correct stuff (and the correct dose), so the fault was not the G.P.'s but the actual chemist itself!