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Amythromyacin

 A prescription for the insistent ignorant
  (+1)
(+1) 		  [vote for,
against]

With the cold and flu season beginning, there are always individuals and parents that insist that an antibiotic be prescribed regardless of the actual need for it. Result: less effective antibiotic treatment as the diseases mutate because of widespread overprescribing of common antibiotics.

Enter a-MYTH-romyacin, the registered placebo that sounds similar to the real thing and must be prescribed by your doctor.

Amythromyacin, prescribed especially for colds where all antibiotics are ineffective, has no known interactions, and side effects are similar to a sugar pill.

—deepfried, Dec 17 2003

UnaBubba's http://www.halfbake...a/The_20Hypothecary
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 04 2004]

[link]






       at last ! there should be a version especially for mrsa, nice one [deepfried].
—neilp, Dec 17 2003
   

       Would this help heal infections around wounds caused by garden-fork impalement?
—dobtabulous, Dec 17 2003
   

       The prescription of antibiotics isn't the problem, it's the misuse of antibiotics.   

       You're going to run into a problem the first time someone dies while using this as a course of treatment.
—phoenix, Dec 17 2003
   

       Excellent. I live in a country of hypochondriacs where there is a chemist on every corner and otherwise rational people throw "curing" teas and huge amounts of unneccessary vitamins and minerals down their throats, swear you'll make a toothache worse by sleeping on feather pillows, have themselves rubbed with hay and take paracetemol immediately if they get wet in the rain, as if there's no tomorrow (which there isn't ever actually, if you think about it).   

       My favourite advert at the moment is one for a cold remedy that, roughly translated, says,"Full of life, despite your cold". The first sentence said in an upbeat, full-of-beans voice, the second as if dying of tuberculosis.
—squeak, Dec 17 2003
   

       Sounds like one for the Hypothecary.   

       I’m taking a prescription brand right now; it’s got four different placebos in a synergistic blend, good for a whole spectrum of maladies. I couldn’t get to the bakery without it.
—pluterday, Dec 17 2003
   

       While I would be for this idea, it wouldn't work. Not with the average consumer able to look up just about every drug in existence. The solution lies in educating the public. Or, forgoing that, doctors need to be more conscientious with their prescriptions of antibiotics, and not just give a child antibiotics because the mother insists on it.
—Overpanic, Dec 17 2003
   

       Not nessecarily...can Joe Q. Public decode this?   

       Amythromycin® (Galactose 300mg) is a synthetic macromolecule in a rapidly-dissolving vessel for oral administration. Clinical tests found it 99.9% effective for its intended purpose, the dissimulation of benighted individuals. (etc.)   

       But, [Overpanic], is the kind of person who looks up every drug possible the kind of person who doesn't know that antibiotics are ineffective?
—Baker^-1, Dec 17 2003
   

       Actually, I'm not entirely sure this wouldn't work. This is intended for those who refuse to accept the fact that antibiotics don't work against viruses. If someone took the time to do research and find out what Amythromyacin was, they would hopefully at the same time be educated about the other facts as well. So this could in a sense be seen as a enducation initiative, with a safe endpoint for those who refuse to be educated.   

       Of course it wouldn't work for the fringe groups with "alternative" theories about how things actually work. Also, I think the whole thing would cause too much damage to people's trust of their doctors when the news media got ahold of it and presented it as some sort of big scandal.
—scad mientist, Dec 17 2003
   

       BTW, + for the creative idea.
—scad mientist, Dec 17 2003
   

       [Baker^-1] True, that tagline might come up first on a google search, which directs Joe Q. Public to the website for the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Amythromycin.   

       But I guarantee you that the next three search results will be along the lines of:
"NY Times.com - Article - Amythromycin: How much are you willing to pay for a placebo?"
"Health.com - Article - Is trickery the best medicine? A discussion of Amythromycin."
"Amythromycin. Buy now at Drugstore.com!"		   

       When it comes down to it, I think people feel safer taking a pill with an active medication in it, even if their doctor tells them it won't work, "just in case". There's also not a blaze's chance in space that insurance companies will pay for it, and when people start having to pay for the stuff out of their own pocket, they'll probably start to wonder why. If the public finds out there's nothing in these pills but starch, they'll be outraged that they spent good money on it.
—Overpanic, Dec 17 2003
   

       My Pop's Mom would frequently catch her deathbed illness - we'd get her a sugar pill - she'd down it - and be cured within a *maximum* of 1 millisecond.
—thumbwax, Dec 18 2003
   

       This is pretty much what a lot of homeopathic remedies do. Echinacea, for example, has been proven to do diddly squat for colds, but it's out there.   

       Fishbone. You can't mess with medicine this way.
—waugsqueke, Dec 18 2003
   

       Not keen on this idea. It's bad enough that I contribute part of my tax money, via the NHS, to drug companies for (mostly) over-priced and variable effectiveness drugs. I'm certainly not going to contribute towards the cost of drugs that don't work at all.
—DrBob, Dec 18 2003
   

       I'm up for this one, or at least for the indication of a problem that needs work.   

       If the patient is diagnosed with a virus then there is no use for a true antibiotic and as deepfried said, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics (as prescribed by overly solicitous MDs) is spending down our collective armamentarium against the little bastards.   

       Now there is the real danger of misreading or misfilling the prescription of such a similarly named drug.   

       And yes, UnaBubba. Placebos do work until you blow the whistle. They also have side-effects! Crazy that way.   

       Somewhere I read/heard about an experiment with the different forms for placebos (pill, liquid, caplets, powders, colors) They tested their relative effectiveness (which varied enough to give a progressive strength listing). Very interesting. I'll redig it up. Good for strength modulation of the Amythromyacin doses I suspect.
—DadManWalking, Dec 21 2003
   
      
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