Unwilling to "share" medication with DH

[PMDD]

DH and I are on antidepressants, Sertraline (sp?). I am on 50mg a day and DH is on 200mg. My prescription is for a packet that contains 1 pill a day. DH prescription is a packet that is a double dose and he has to take 2 pills a day - therefore the equivalent of 4 of my pills a day.

Normally we keep our renewal prescription in the bathroom cabinet next to each others, so when I renew my medication, I renew DH too. For the last few months I pop both the pescriptions into the drs and 2 working days later the chemist has it ready to pick up.

This month DH moved his medication and also his form to repeat the prescription but I didn't know where. I told him that I was renewing mine last week but he forgot to give me his repeat form.

This Saturday morning DH said that he had run out of medication and could he take mine instead? I said no because even if I get his renewal form to the drs on Monday morning, the earliest his prescription would be ready would be Tuesday, perhaps even Wednesday. This would mean he would need to have 16 of my pills to cover the 4 days.

I couldn't even 'borrow' back as his individual pills are double my dosage. The drs will start asking questions if I hand in another renewal form 2 weeks early.

He went bananas and said I was selfish. I don't think I was. Was I?

Not advice for now, but for the future OP our surgery does an online login where you can order repeat prescriptions.
If yours does the same and you had both your logins you could order the medication well in advance.

Ours go straight over to the pharmacy and all you need to do is go in and collect.

I would have shared and then explained what happened to the pharmacy so that when he got his script they could dispense some of it as 50 mg tablets so you could share them .provided you all take the correct dose it doesn't matter how you take it ( ie 2 tablets or 4) . Besides which if you usually deal with his repeat you must have known he was going to run out and could have asked him where his repeat was when you put yours in at the GP . It does look rather like you were making some kind of point or just being awkward.

Leverette whilst it is the same medication the dosages are very different. Therefore OP would have to use up a large amount of her prescription for her husband to have just 3 doses at his rate. She can not then just take her needed doses from his pack as the suspention is a lot higher than her prescribed dose.
If she lends him hers then orders a repeat prescription sooner than usual it may cause her hassle as the GP will want to know why she is ordering 2 weeks early.
They say not to share meds for this very reason. He can easily just ring the GP for a fast prescription or ask for an emergency appointment with a nurse (that can prescribe) or a GP.

Why can't he sort out emergency/repeat prescription? I dont think its wise to share medication at all. Not sure what youre going to do this time around but he's got take responsibility for this, you arent there as his 'fallback' & besides, what would he do if you WEREN'T on anti-depressants then? He'd have to sort something out wouldnt he? I hope by now he's contacted GP.

I wouldn't see a friend go without necessary medication when I had a packet of it. Let alone my other half.

Im on sertraline.been on 50 and 100 and they are easy to break in half

But the point is he won't go without if he rings the GP now and asks for an urgent prescription. Maybe had it been impossible for him to sort a prescription out it might be OPs only option. As it stands it is a Monday, the GP is available and they can get to the chemist.
He just needs to ring and ask and he can have his own.

He doesn't have to go without though, he could always take responsibility for himself and arrange an emergency prescription whilst the normal prescription is on order

YANBU.
DH always forgets his repeats and I have had the embarrassment of ringing our camp commandant receptionists to get an emergency script.

Last time this happened I made him deal with it. They gave him such a serve I hopefully won't have to do it again.

How well do you know your pharmacist, if I speak to to ours he will ring the surgery then give me a couple of tablets for the 2 days then give 2 less in the prescription when it comes.
But no not unreasonable to share.

*to not share I mean.

littleprincess it was Saturday when he found he'd run out so would have meant trying the OOH team .

I wouldn't see a friend go without necessary medication when I had a packet of it. Let alone my other half.

Nor would anyone. And I'm sure if the OP and her DH were in the middle of the jungle with no access to a doctor/pharmacist for a few days, she would share.

But that's not the case. It's perfectly possible for him to get medication and no need at all for him to either go without or expect her to share hers. All it requires is for him to take a bit of responsibility and make a phone call or whatever.

I would share with my DH if he forgot to sort it out himself. I would then ask the pharmacy to dispense half of his in a dosage that I could take.

Yeah the rules say you shouldn't etc but DH is my best friend, I would give him a kidney if he needed it! I'm on some pretty strong painkillers and don't mind him having some when his past injury flares up.

I'm the only one on regular medication though and obviously painkillers are a bit different to anti depressants.

If he rings now and tells the receptionist its an emergency and he's actually out of medication they will be able to have the perscription at the desk within a few hours. The delay is so that a doctor can sit down and do a big batch efficiently, and they will get pissed off if he does it regularly, but as a one-off they should manage it today.

Assuming its something reasonably common the pharmacist will be able to do it whilst you wait within a reasonable time. It saves you time if you drop it off and pick it up the next day, but I've never had to wait more than half an hour for a prescription when needing it urgently (usually as antibiotics etc).

I think you'll find that the line on tablets is not ALWAYS indicative of you being able to split it to halve the dosage OP. I know this from my own medication, there is a line but the leaflet that comes with the meds specifically says not to take half a tablet as it is NOT equal to half the dosage in some cases. You are not your husbands personal assistant, or his mother. Your husband is responsible for his own medication. YANBU.

Yes I realise that now. However he still had the option to ring OOH for a prescription. What would he have done had OP not have been on the same medication?
She gave him the opportunity for her to order his repeat a week ago, she asked for his form.
He could have rung OOH for advice, and I doubt they would have suggested using his wife's medication.

Has anybody pointed out yet,that it s a criminal offence to give someone else your prescribed medication.

YANBU. He's an adult and there is no reason why he can't request an urgent script himself. Indeed, the hassle of doing this would hopefully deter him from letting his meds run out again. I wouldn't recommend lending him yours, it'll show up on your computerised notes as poor compliance if scripts are ordered too early or too late (most GP computer systems have automatic programmes that will indicate beside each item on a repeat list what the % compliance is). If you start lending out your tabs etc your GP could even change the frequency of your script to weekly instead of 1-2 monthly to avoid this from happening.

I think your DH needs to take responsibility for his own medication.

Sockreturningpixie no it isn't.

You can't supply drugs in the course of business dealings unless you are in an exempted profession (pharmacist doctor vet etc). But it is only a criminal offence to possess drugs if the drug in question is a controlled substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Does the doctor have to approve the prescription refill every single time? I wouldn't share with him, and I would make him call the doctor to get the emergency approval or whatever.

I was under the impression setraline is a controlled substance in the uk

AdmiralData, the score-lines on tablets are there specifically to allow them to be split fairly accurately into half doses. You can even buy a little cutting gadget from the chemist to do it. I can't think of any reason to have the score lines other than to indicate that it's safe to split the tablet.

Maybe a pharmacist could comment?

Nope it definitely isn't.

It is a very safe anti-depressant and it is wrong to give the impression it belongs in the same category as drugs likely to be regulated under the Misuse of Drugs Act.