According to Greenberg, exact numbers on the practice are elusive, but financial concerns are usually the reason for the switch. These surveyors

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contacted 1,387 adults who had filled a prescription

estradiol

in the past year. "It would be insane to do this without informing the patient or without the physician knowing. Among the survey's other findings. Switching Out Meds Safely According

estradiol

to the National

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Consumers League, therapeutic substitution can save money and even deliver drugs that are more effective. I can't imagine this goes on without the doctor's or patient's

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knowledge," said Bentley Trever, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences

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ashwood discount drug store at Texas A&M Health Science Center Risa Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy in Kingsville. "People may not know about it, but it's happening, and if it is happening, it should be happening with full transparency, and patients and doctors should be in on this," said Dinah Greenberg,

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executive director of the

prescription medication

National Consumers League. The practice, known as therapeutic substitution, is usually done as a cost-saving measure.

But the practice is inherently risky if the new drug doesn't work as well as the old, or introduces new side effects or interactions. The cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have been targeted for therapeutic

prescription medication

substitution, as have proton pump inhibitors, which are used to treat acid reflux. More information The National Consumers League has a public education campaign on the practice. "It's not necessarily something that we're

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condemning." But others feel the practice is not unduly widespread and, even when it is used,

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that doctors and patients rarely go uninformed. Two-thirds had never heard of therapeutic substitution, while 10 percent reported they had personally experienced the practice in the past two years. Pfizer, which makes Lipitor (atorvastatin), funded this survey. "To most people's knowledge, there are no important differences if given in equivalent doses," said Haas.

Prescription Switching' Would Make Most Patients

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Unhappy -- Most prescription drug users would be unhappy if one of their medications was switched to another in the same class without their knowledge or their doctor's approval, a new survey shows. "I think they're making much ado about nothing. The league has this advice for patients. "It's the 80/20 rule, the idea being that if the vast majority of people are using one drug versus the other that when you apply this to a large population,

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that drug will be the most cost-effective with no compromise in quality," Haas said. Just think about the tort ramifications." Ossie Haas, director of pharmacy at the University of Scott Medical Center, said the practice is "not uncom " but added that, "it's hard to believe pharmacists would

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change patient medications and not talk to them about it." In New York, where Haas practices, a pharmacist would have to communicate directly with the doctor to get a new prescription Prescription switching is the practice of dispensing a different drug, albeit one still in the same class of medications, as the drug originally prescribed.