Bonnie - thank you for your understanding of our difficulties in
communicating about drugs and breastfeeding.  The problem with brand names
is that different countries often have different names for the same drug.
And even within the same country there are often many different brand names
for the same drug.  So each of us has to go scrabbling around in our drug
directories to find out which drug is being discussed.  For instance if I
talked about Antalgic, Panadol, Panado or Varipan would you know that these
are all Zim brand names for paracetamol?

Way back in l989 I attended a 3 day WHO/Health Action International workshop
on the rational use of drugs, which quite revolutionized my thinking.  One
of the main messages was that brand names are usually much more expensive
because you are paying not only for the drug, but for the *name* and that
there are many ways in which brand names are marketed by pharmaceutical
companies in order to get more health professionals to prescribe their
products (does this sound familiar?).  Thus describing drugs in generic
terms will not only off-set the costs paid by the consumer but lead to
better communication between health care providers and recipients - we would
all know which active ingredient we were talking about.  Nine years later
our health insurance societies have *finally* seen the economic sense of
this and will only pay out the costs of the generic drug prescribed to a
patient.  Change is very slow and I know that many doctors still prescribe,
and many pharmacists still order, in brand names, but at least we're on the
right track.

Anyway, the above is just my .O2 about why I would really love it if generic
names for drugs could be included (say after the Brand name?) on Lactnet.

>Re generic names--yes this will help our international participants.
>However, I would ask that the brand name be given also if know so that
>we don't have to look up every drug.  We are more likely to be familiar
>with the brand name in many cases.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe
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