ask the experts
by rachel grumman
Don’t worry—a CT
scan is quick and
totally painless.
q
Are generic drugs as
good as brand-name
q
I need a CT scan—what should I expect?
You can rest easy about this test: CT (computerized tomography) scans
drugs?
are actually one of the most common non-invasive tests done at hospitals.
When patients are admitted to the They’re used to pinpoint a tumor, blood clot, injury or infection, or rule one out.
hospital they quickly realize that During the scan you’ll lie very still on a bed that moves into a machine that takes
hospitals don’t always carry the same pictures much like an X-ray. CT scans are quick—they take just a few minutes—and
prescription medications they’re used not painful at all. Some scans require you to drink a contrast liquid (or get it through
to. (Of the 10,000 or so drugs the Food an IV); this is like a dye that isn’t permanent. If your doctor is looking for a mass
& Drug Administration, or FDA, has (such as a tumor), the contrast liquid will create a ring around the mass, making
approved, the average hospital it easier for her to see. In most hospitals the results of your scan will pop up im-
pharmacy will carry about 1,500 to mediately. The radiology team then reads and interprets the scan and you’ll talk
2,000.) In some cases, the hospital through the results with your doctor or hospitalist to see what they mean for you.
pharmacy substitutes a generic drug —Jeff Wiese, M.D., president-elect of the Society of Hospital Medicine and profes-
in place of a brand-name medication. sor of medicine at Tulane University, in New Orleans
You’re not alone in being concerned
about these substitutions. But rest pharmacy practice at Long Island Univer- sure to ask your nurses if that’s an op-
assured that generic drugs are the same sity, in Brooklyn, New York tion for you. If you’re sicker, though,
as their brand-name versions as far as we may have to draw blood and check
dosage, safety, strength, quality, how
q
What can I do to get IV (intravenous) lines more often,
it works in your body, how you take it more sleep while I’m though even in these cases we still try
and what it treats. According to the in the hospital? to give spurts of time to allow patients
FDA, a generic version of a drug must Hospitals can be the most unrest- to sleep and we’ll use flashlights in-
have identical amounts of the same ful place for patients. If you’re seri- stead of turning on overhead lights.
active ingredient and must also match ously ill, you may be woken up every To get more rest, start by letting your
1
d
r (or nearly so) the brand-name drug in one to two hours because your condi- night nurse know that you’re having
p
a
what’s called bioequivalence, meaning tion has to be assessed. If a patient’s trouble sleeping and what usually helps
l
e
o
w
o
that the generic drug reaches the same condition is not critical, nurses can you doze off at home; a prescription
/
s
n
levels in the patient’s blood or tissue institute a “quiet time” between 12 a.m. sleep aid may help too.
m
o
.
c in the same amount of time as the and 4 a.m., and we can adjust the times —malou blanco-yarosh, r.n., c.n.s.,
o
t
o
brand-name drug would. for giving medications. So instead of assistant clinical professor at UCLA School
p
h
k —robert v. digregorio, pharm.d., di- giving you your drugs at midnight, for of Nursing, in Los Angeles tp
c
o
rector of pharmacotherapy services at the example, we can do it at 10 p.m. so you rachel grumman is a freelance health

i
s
t
© Brooklyn Hospital Center and professor of can get more uninterrupted sleep. Be and beauty writer living in New York City.
the patient magazine 2010 9
PT009__0FVP0_SP10DEPTexperts.indd 9 2/9/10 8:00 AM
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