Branding and Senior Citizens

Mom often has muscle pain. We've talked to her about taking a Tylenol before bedtime so that she'd sleep better and wake up feeling more refreshed. Mom was hesitant. With all the medication she takes, she wanted to make sure that taking a Tylenol did not interfere with anything, especially with the pill she takes at bedtime. When we visited her cardiologist about a month ago, we specifically asked the question "Is it ok for Mom to take a regular strength Tylenol at bedtime, even with the medication she takes? Will it interfere with any of her meds?" The cardiologist assured us that taking a Tylenol occasionally would not do any harm.

With that in mind, we have been searching for regular strength Tylenol. Our regular drug store (where Mom gets all her prescriptions filled) had pulled it off the shelves for some reason and hasn't had it in stock. I have checked on the stock status every time I'm at this particular drug store, but they still don't have it on the shelves. Apparently, most people are buying extra strength Tylenol and not regular strength Tylenol. Who knew?

I mentioned all of this to my sister and asked her to check her drug store the next time she stopped by there. My sister must have found some because when we got together for Mother's Day, she gave my Mom a bottle of it. I didn't give it another thought until yesterday. Mom handed me the opened package and said "You keep these in your room. I won't be taking these because there's a warning that says to "Ask a doctor or pharmacist before use if the user is taking the blood thinning drug warfarin"".

I looked at Mom quizzically and said "Yes. We asked Dr. T about it and he said it's ok for you to occasionally take a Tylenol. You can go ahead and take these".

Mom was adament; "These are not Tylenol. I can't take these."

I patiently explained that the drugstore brand of Acetaminophen was the same thing as Tylenol. The box even has the phrase "Compare to Tylenol Regular Strength Tablets active ingredient".

I tried to explain that this was the same thing as getting a generic prescription drug rather than the name brand drug. This is a concept that Mom is familiar with and I thought it might help. No dice. Mom is convinced that the drug store brand will kill her. (Yes, there is a warning on the box that states something to that effect regarding overdosing). So, it's Tylenol or nothing according to Mom.

Branding is going to be the death of me.