shortage of antipsychotics

[Edattani]

is anyone else struggling with a shortage of antipsychotics medication? There is a national shortage I recommend phoning local pharmacies to check they have your medication in stock and if not phone your doctor to change your prescription for example they don’t have any 200mg quetiapine tablets so I am waiting for my doctor to call me so she can put me on slow release quetiapine which they do have in stock. If you are on a repeat prescription I recommend phoning your pharmacy and GP.

[Maria_at_APP Moderator]

Hello Edattani, this is worrying and I am sorry you cannot find your dosage locally, glad that you acted so swiftly hope your call with your GP goes well and they send the prescription in time for you to pick it up. It is all very stressful. Thanks for warning us, I will check with my local pharmacist.

This link gives some news of shortages on medication which may be useful to keep an eye out for:

cpe.org.uk/our-latest-news-...

Take care, good luck

Maria

[SammySeal]

Oh dear, I literally have nightmares most nights about running out of Quetiapine and getting unwell again or having withdrawals, just because it's happened a couple of times now.

Thanks for the heads-up Edattani. I see the notice is issued in England and I don't live there, but I will check if it also affects here.

Thanks

Sammy

[Survivedwithcolor]

I'm in the USA. The FDA is not reporting a shortage here of quetiapine, although Canada is reporting a shortage, as well as the UK. Troubles with the distribution channels are mentioned.

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this. I've had all kinds of similar issues with my medications over the years and it's always stressful. Some of my psychiatrists were able to give me boxes of samples to get me through times when there were pharmacy problems or insurance problems (you wouldn't have that with the NHS). One of my doctors some years ago told me to take few pills out of my prescription and just put them away in a separate container, so I'd have a few in case of emergency. That trick came in very handy a few times. I got some mini medication bags for travel that you can write the prescription name and dose on. I actually keep a few of all my pills in a little stash of these and I use them as backup for when I travel, in the event I am delayed a few days from returning home. This also has the effect of giving me a backup for when I'm at home. Though it sounds like you're to the point that you're already having to dig into the last few pills. I hope you got it resolved. Been there and it's no fun. Take care