Information Regarding Cost of Psychiatric Medication For Friends in the United States
People in America Don't Have To Go Without Needed Medications Due To Finances
Good day to all of my American friends who live with a mental health condition or have a loved one who does. And greetings to all those who simply want to learn more about mental health to become better people. I often think about what it would be like to return to the US, I spent some time there when I was around ten, and again at age 19. There were a lot of incredible aspects of the country and its culture that made me want to embrace every bit of it, which ended me up at a US Army Recruiting Centre. America even has a great deal of vast, unspoiled beauty still left yet it has so many incredible feats of engineering, architecture and tradition.
One of the most critical things I think of when wanting to visit or stay in the US is, I simply don’t think I could keep up with a full-time job that would allow me coverage for my medical costs and prescriptions, or that I could leave a vast and beautiful country like Canada behind along with my group of friends and family when they have become so much a part of who I am.
In this post, I would like to explain some information I gathered about how people in America can afford the high cost of prescriptions for mental health conditions. In my opinion, getting medications to those who need it first of all can help lower the appalling suicide rates for people with mental illnesses, but properly treating mental health disorders simply makes financial sense with regards to the cost to society to have a person who is untreated clog up the system by needing emergency medical services, police response, court times and costs of incarceration, all of which will be drastically lowered when a person has the care they need.
I have been reading an excellent book called “Surviving Schizophrenia” By E. Fuller Torrey, MD (revised and updated 6th edition available on amazon.com and on audible audiobook), and I have learned a few new things I would like to share with everyone, along with some information I have gathered from other sources, or experienced myself.
First, I thought I would offer another view on saving money on medications from an American Physician below.
As I see things, I feel it is critical to deal with symptoms of mental illness (in my case schizoaffective disorder) in order of how they affect a person. It makes no sense to worry too much about anti-depressants when a person is in a deep state of psychosis. You need to get them to a baseline, then later when they are out of their unfortunate mental state, worry about fine tuning. In an ideal world, all symptoms would be treated and patients can lead better lives. The critical thing to do is to get treated for the delusional thoughts, the hallucinations that reinforce these false beliefs, and the paranoia. These are known as the positive symptoms of psychosis. Paranoia leaves the person who experiences it worried and feeling unsafe despite any reassurances that their concerns are not serious ones. I have found, ( I want to offer suggestions that you can take to your primary care physician or psychiatrist) that there are medications that are much less costly than others and have nearly the same effect, if not better in some people with psychosis. And remember that you can approach most pharmacists who know a great deal about medications for no cost.
There are two medications that a psychiatrist may consider when a family is unable to afford the latest medicine, one being olanzapine, the other being risperidone. Because they are not as profitable as many other medications, they aren’t promoted or advertised as much as drugs that benefit pharmaceutical companies, but they do work and they are much less expensive.
It’s important to remember these pharmaceutical companies are perhaps one of our best hopes for finding new and more effective medications, and they are not totally evil. They are at times though, good evidence that price gouging needs to be controlled, especially when it happens in regards to health care.
The next step in the process of affording psychiatric medications is, first to find out if there is a generic version of what you need. If there isn’t, and you or your family are in a difficult financial state (and what family doesn’t have money challenges when dealing with illnesses like schizophrenia) there are programs to lower the cost to basically cheap or free. One way to seek out the best options is to use a website such as https://mat.org/ (Medical Assistance Tool) which can help you find the best options available. I also recommend visiting The Mental Health America website which has a wealth of information such as directories of local programs across the US, advice on helping a family member and much, much more.
Something I should say at this point is, among the psychiatrists and leaders in mental health reform and awareness, I have often heard that the most effective medication for psychosis is clozapine/clozaril. Dr. Torrey in his book Surviving Schizophrenia, agrees with this assessment. Clozapine has some drawbacks, mostly that you need frequent blood tests when first put on it, because of a nominal risk of a lowered white blood cell count (the tests are now mandatory and hence the risk of serious harm is believed to be under control). Clozapine is currently a generic medication, and works better than many newer medications, though it is infrequently used. The fact that it is a generic drug now again makes it less profitable for pharmaceutical companies to promote because there is less money to be made despite that it is a revolutionary drug. The good thing is, it is called the best possible option, but the price of it is nowhere near the cost of other newer medications.
The next option is something I learned from friends who were on their own and didn’t have the greatest jobs. What they often did was ask their physician for free samples of medications that were given out by drug company promoters. This may only give them enough for a short time, but it lowers costs and can help a great deal.
The next step is to look into which company manufactures your medication and contact them asking if they have a drug assistance program. You will need to provide information about your income and documentation from your doctor (such as statement of condition, prescription, etc). Often when a person or family is experiencing hardship that they can prove, medications can be given for free, sent to you courtesy of Big Pharma.
When you have trouble affording medications, it is critical to discuss this with your pharmacist. Some medications charge for their pills in such a way that a 5mg pill will cost the same as a 10mg pill. You can then ask your doctor to prescribe half as many 10mg pills, and either have your pharmacist cut the pills in half, or break/cut them in half yourself.
Another option I have been saving for the end of this topic is, there are online pharmacies. I prefer to recommend the Canadian ones, such as Canada Drugs Direct, or The Canadian Drugstore, and other Canadian ones because the standards of manufacturing are much higher in Canada than a place such as Mexico where regulations aren’t as strict. The advantage of buying online through a Canadian pharmacy is that in Canada, there are strict regulations to limit the markup pharmaceutical companies can put on their medications. There is a further advantage, which is the weak Canadian Dollar giving a great exchange rate. There are no caps on how much profit a drug company is allowed in the US. To buy from a Canadian pharmacy online you can mail or fax your prescription and complete your order over the Internet.
For anyone who is reading this who has different or added information, I would love it if you could send me a comment or advice on other ways medications can be made more affordable/accessible.
