Reader Beth writes in to share her mom’s recent experience with a Walgreen’s pharmacist:
Last week my mom told me about the unfortunate experience she had at Walgreen’s. She had recently switched to a new antidepressant and when she came down with a cold was concerned about taking OTC cold medicine with it.
She went to the pharmacy counter and asked the pharmacist (at least she assumed it was the pharmacist, they were wearing the lab coat) if it was safe to take cold medicine with the Effexor. The pharmacist replied that they didn’t know. Not exactly a helpful answer, but I am sure there was a valid reason they couldn’t answer the question. What happened next was disturbing. My mom then asked if it would be ok to skip her Effexor for a day, so she could take the cold medicine without worrying. The pharmacist responded that “If you don’t take that Effexor no one will want to be within 25 ft of you.”
Now my mom isn’t ashamed of her depression, can laugh about it and is comfortable talking about. But this made her extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable about using the pharmacy. My mom is not dangerously depressed, but this pharmacist should have known better than to say this to a depressed person. You never know how unstable a person is. My mom chose not to complain, but I thought this was an example of how one employee can really alienate a customer.
Thanks,
Beth
That pharmacist was an unprofessional jerk! We want to hang out with your Mom no matter what. Give her a big hug from the Consumerist.
(Photo:meghannmarco)
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I would have told him that it was his lucky day, and that I already skipped for the day and I’d like to speak with his manager or supervisor.
A Pharmacist should know what the drug interactions might be, and if they didn’t know off the top of their head they could easily look it up. It was likely just a dumb labtech (which is why non-Doctors/Pharmacists should not wear labcoats that might confuse you).
I happen to like my walgreens. the pharm techs are always nice, though not always quick to respond, and the pharmacist there is knowledgeable and friendly to me. however, that dumbass pharm tech could have been far less of a douche. definitely report him for being an unhelpful jerk.
This is the kind of attitude that leads to discrimination. I have suffered from depression since I was about 10 and had some unfortunate trauma. It leaves a mark that combined with my chemical imbalance is hard to deal with
People with depression are not “crazy” or dangerous to be around, a few perhaps, but the vast majority are really normal people who have some issues.
Comments like this is why barely anyone outside my family knows about my history depression. I don’t want co-workers thinking I’m going to go off everytime I look a little harried.
It’s sickening to hear a comment like that was said and the mother should complain in this case. Such a charged insensitive comment is unacceptable, especially from a medical professional who should know better.
@spryte:
When you use words like “Disturbed” “Extremely Embarrassed” and “Uncomfortable”, you paint of picture of someone that upon hearing said insult (which might have been a bad joke), the woman in question perhaps ran out of pharmacy crying, never to return.
Like if I went to Walmart, had a prescription for Viagra, and the pharmacist said “having problems getting it up eh?” I’d say “awww man, you know it”. Not start shooting off emails to every website over a slight insult. I might be miffed a bit, but hey…that’s life.
what a fucking dick
Pharmacists are doctors, and while every profession has it’s share of quacks and douches’, I think the comment was made by a Pharmacy Tech. Still, that doesn’t excuse it, and you should report it to corporate. Awareness needs to be raised, both at the poor training and the insensitivity shown to patients.
@wiretapstudios:
Right? I was wondering why no one has yet either. Where is the “stupid questions get stupid answers” crowd today?
The only way that would be ok is if Effexor gives the user terrible terrible gas when during withdrawals.
@bohemian: This is totally weird to me. I’m in San Francisco and I LOVE Walgreens pharmacy. I personally take anti-depressants–when I’ve had trouble getting a refill called in, they’ve let me have a couple days’ worth to get me through without issues. Anyone behind the counter in SF Walgreens locations is totally professional and helpful and knowledgeable. Must be a geographic thing.
Meanwhile, nobody would want to be around me if I went off my meds. I’d not take the slightest offense. It’s not because I’m a raging loser, but those things affect your brain chemistry and when you stop taking them, you are not your normal self, not your medicated self, you are just plain whacko.
As another consumer of effexor, I also have to agree with Eukaryote and have to side a little with the pharmacist. The pharmacist knows what’s going to be wrong with you. He didn’t say it in a politically correct fashion, but he stated the obvious which I think is as nicely as you can put it.
I think some of you need to lighten up about this. Did we all grow up to be a bunch of whiners for a company not being PC? If you don’t like those words, stop going to walgreens and let that be the end of it.
I would heed the pharmacist’s warning and add one of my own: dump effexor. In case any of you wanted to know how it feels to be without effexor for a day, here’s what happened to me when I forgot to take it at the correct time, after having been on it for 3 months:
1. Big feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts. These were very prominent at the end of the first day.
2. Irritated at everyone around me. I was willing to cause trouble, which I did. I threw my friend on the wall for talking back at me and left a bad bruise on her arms. There’s a small leftover bloodstain for punching the side of the building as well. Also, I think that day I pissed off my next door neighbors because they don’t talk to me anymore.
3. I walked around as if I was drunk. I had blurred wobbly vision (similar to being drunk). Constant dizziness so I kept on bumping into things while at work. I don’t drive to work so I think that saved me from getting in a car crash or dealing with a cop.
4. Terrible stomach pains from mucus filled diarrhea (where you want to crap, but all you get is that leftover mucous stuff). In this case, it was probably because the day before I didn’t eat and I had a bad reaction.
All these symptoms were present on the FIRST DAY (24 hours) from the time I was supposed to take the medication. Because of this I stopped taking effexor – cold turkey, which was a big mistake. I was too afraid of what would happen if I stayed on effexor. These symptoms gradually went away after one month, but it was hard.
There’s a big forum of people listing their symptoms dealing with effexor and I would advise some of you to look into it: Effexor Activist.
I generally ask to see the PDR, my CVS has one behind the counter, if I have not gotten a copy of the PDR page from my doctor. Another realy good web site for drug info is [www.nlm.nih.gov]
A consumer friendly resource from the NIH.
Maybe he should have said “sure, don’t take your medicine, eveything will be just fine”…..and also just make sure to notify the family.
going off effexor doesn’t make you so much “evil” as “very, very sick.” when I moved a year ago, I lost my bottle of effexor, and ended up quitting cold turkey not by choice. it was not pretty. i started taking other meds so as not to have to face effexor withdrawal again. seriously, it is one of the worst for withdrawal.
@bigmac12: No, the proper way to do things would be to tell her about the withdrawal and what it could cause, not make flippant comments about how “nobody will want to be around you”. Frankly, this could be either taken as a joke or an insult — when, as other posters here have noted, going off of this drug is no laughing matter. Besides being rude, this is downright dangerous.
I have a Walgreens pharmacy story: One time a few years ago, I was on Ritalin for ADHD (no politics please). My local CVS–normally having excellent pharmacists–was out of that med and the fill-in guy there had me go down the street to Walgreen’s.
Walgreens had it, but according to my state law, my state insurance would not pay for Ritalin that I didn’t get at my “usual” pharmacy. (I don’t remember all the details; it’s been a few years.)
Now, I don’t blame the pharmacist or the store for something with the state. I’m well aware and experienced in the medical bureaucracy, and am always polite and cordial.
But that’s not how it worked out.
The Walgreens pharmacist quoted a price for my Ritalin. Too high for my budget at the time. I said something like that to him, and he goes:
“It’s expensive because of people like you. If you weren’t on welfare, maybe it wouldn’t be so expensive.”
Jaw dropped. It was all I could do to decline, and leave the store.
(Preemptive comment: Ritalin is expensive more due to DEA paranoia than any moral defect on anyone’s part. If I really were into recreational usage, it’d be a lot easier to do an “informal” transaction…)
maybe this kind of customer service to depressed people explains why the local Walgreens in my town was robbed at gunpoint
Horrible thing for him to say, but as an Ex-Effexor user, I can attest that I wouldn’t even want to be within 25 feet of myself if I’d stopped taking it for a day. Not ’cause of the crazy, but because of the brain zaps, vertigo, nausea, etc.
Being off it for even a few hours can cause those reactions, and tapering off it is hell on earth.
The pharmacist is right! Speaking from experience, Effexor has quick, severe withdrawl symptoms. I had to take my pill at the same time every day and if I missed by as little as one hour, then I’d start to feel seriously ill. When I finally went off that poison for good, the withdrawal–physical and mental– as so horrible, that I had to stay indoors for about a month. Dealing with other people was simply impossible and staying 25ft away from anyone while going through that is a DAMN GOOD IDEA.
@Saboth: “When you use words like “Disturbed” “Extremely Embarrassed” and “Uncomfortable”, you paint of picture of someone that upon hearing said insult (which might have been a bad joke), the woman in question perhaps ran out of pharmacy crying, never to return.”
Hmm…now THAT is an overreaction, actually. Those words don’t make me picture that at all. “Disturbed” and “uncomfortable” make me think of someone scowling a bit or looking taken aback. “Extremely embarrassed”…maybe someone blushing and looking a little nervous? But none of those make me think the woman cried and ran out of the store. You’re inferring something a little far-reaching and passing judgment based on it.
As for what you’d say to the hypothetical Viagra comment…just because you have the sense of humor and the reactions of a frat boy doesn’t mean everyone needs to. I think most men would be pretty damn insulted by something like that, and rightfully so.
Ugh, bad answer. What the pharm prolly meant is that if you skip taking your psych meds for a day, you feel like shit. Even if he’d said “shit,” my previous sentence would have been better than what he said. It’s called professionalism, kids; you’re now hanging out with your friends when you’re at work.
@twinklebean912: How do you know how long she’s been taking it and what affect it’s had on her body? You don’t, so stop assuming.
WTF? Why would people want to not be within 25ft. of you because you’re off your depression meds? I think he’s confusing depression with, like, halitosis or something.
Sounds like it was a Pharm Tech, you know, a menial wage employee that does backroom, support and cash register tasks in the Pharmacy.
Where did that guy go to pharmacy school? A day without Effexor isn’t going to make much of a difference in your mood level and there’s no reason to worry about mixing Effexor with cold medicine.
I used to work as a pharmacy technician. A few responses to various comments:
1. I think it was probably a tech, not the pharmacist (although the 25 feet comment might suggest some familiarity with the withdrawal effects of Effexor, which I wouldn’t expect a tech to have). Techs often wear white coats too, and pharmacists rarely approach the counter first. If you don’t see “Pharmacist” clearly printed on the nametag, ask to speak to the pharmacist if you have a drug-related question and don’t just launch into your issue.
2. If your issue is drug-related, the pharmacist is absolutely the best person to ask, and probably knows more about it than your doctor. Especially if the drug is new or uncommon, or if it relates to interactions. They may just be pill-counters for most of the day, but the reason pharmacists get paid the big bucks is because they went to school precisely to be experts in these things and to have the knowledge to answer questions. And if they don’t know the answer off the top of their heads, they have all the literature and reference materials to look it up, and they will find out for you. (I’ve never seen a pharmacist just answer “I don’t know” to a relevant question.) They also attend refresher training courses periodically and keep current with new developments, and I’ve seen pharmacists demonstrate superior knowledge to doctors on several occasions. Doctors don’t always know about the particular strengths and sizes drugs are available in, etc, but pharmacists are all over that. So ask your questions — that’s their real purpose. The rest is just administrative stuff. I could pretty much run a pharmacy myself, except for all those pesky arcane pharmaceutical knowledge (oh, and liability) issues.
3. Oh, drug reps come to the pharmacists, too. But I think pharmacists are a little less likely to be influenced by them, using them more as a source of information about new drugs and not necessarily trying to steer patients towards a particular drug because they got an Allegra pill-counting tray or a Cialis notepad. I’ve heard several pharmacists express some professional indignation at the idea that they would advise patients based on the blandishments of a drug rep and not just what they thought was best.
4. If your question isn’t drug-related, though, please ask your doctor, not the pharmacist. Don’t come in and show the pharmacist your mysterious spots! (And that goes double for the poor tech.)
5. Retail pharmacists aren’t Pharm D’s — that’s the next level, that’s the degree you get if you want to do lab work or research or something.
6. There are two kinds of technicians — there’re registered techs, which are the ones who have gone through some kind of course (the kind Sally Struthers wants you to take) and passed a state certification. They can accomplish a few more tasks, like mixing compounds, that regular old techs can’t do, but for the most part they do the same thing as regular techs, who undergo no special qualification except for on-the-job training. That’s the majority of techs you meet, and yeah, a lot of them will be high school grads. They could have just as easily been photo technicians (who also have white coats, btw). They have no special knowledge about the drugs and they CANNOT answer any questions. They will handle customer service/support tasks and also process and dispense medication, but their work has to be overseen and approved by the pharmacist.
But anyway, whoever this person was, tech or pharmacist, he/she sounds pretty rude and insensitive. If it was a pharmacist, he/she should have looked up the answer, and if it was a tech, he/she should have just immediately referred her to the pharmacist and kept his/her mouth shut. Boo.
@Falconfire:
blue coats = tech
white coats = pharmacist
Educated pharm tech here –
Serotonin syndrome could be induced mixing cold medications with SSRI’s and/or SNRI’s.
In defense of the pharmacist about his other seemingly rude comment: This pharmacist has probably seen what can happen to a person when they miss a dose of the antidepressant. Effexor has a short half-life and yes, withdrawal can occur within hours of the missed dose. Seizures and depersonalization have been reported, along with a host of other symptoms. He may have experienced this himself and when you are the one who has been through it, your warnings tend to be passionate because you don’t want anyone else to go through the same distress.
Blue/white coats do not a degree imply.
Sorry.
There is no defense for the staff member (a pharmacist?) that made that comment. It’s accuracy or inaccuracy is irrelevant. Also, if the staff member doesn’t know if there is a drug-drug reaction, the correct response is “Let me look that up for you” or “I will look it up when things slow down and phone you at home”. I would really like someone to make a comment like that to my mom or day…truly…just to give me an excuse to go rip em’ a new one.