I’m a Medical Student Taking Propecia — Can I Just Prescribe It to Myself?
Dr. Rassman-
This question can be answered by you or any other M.D. working on the site, I do not mind. I am a 25 year old 4th year medical student who has been on propecia for 4 years and have had great results with no side effects. Stopped my hair loss completely at a Norwood 2 and have maintained since starting.My problem is that the Dr. that prescribes to me, a prominent hair guy in New Jersey, has recently been unavailable for reasons that I can not figure out. I recently had to get an family doc that I did not know from my school to write me a temporary 90 day script, but with my future move to residency and the time constraints on a surgical resident (which I will be), makes me worry I will be left in the lurch if this keeps happening.
My question is basically this: can I write myself scripts for propecia every 90 days when I get my prescription pad this July? Is their anything ethically/legally wrong that will prevent me from doing this?
All the best
I understand that dealing with doctors can be difficult, but in your generation of medical students I am sure you are ingrained in the medical ethics of medicine.
In addition, the American Medical Association suggests, “Physicians should generally not treat themselves or members of their immediate family“.
So as harmless it may seem, you should not be prescribing medications to yourself. If you are so motivated, I suppose you can ask a colleague or another physician if they would mind (or feel comfortable) prescribing you the medication.
My comment relates to the psychological delay of acceptance of the balding process by use of medication. In the same way someone who is quitting suger takes drinks with sweetners or a moderate drinker replaces alchol with lite or alchol free beer, would it not be better to prepare the indivdual for the inevitable baldness that will (not with entire certainty) happen?
I say this because I spent many years of my youth worrying about my slowly but steadily thinning pate. I never tried anything stronger than a herbal peppermint shampoo. My head smelled good but there were no quantifiable effects.
When I was 38 bang! cancer. Lost the lot. Cytotoxins will do that. Something to ponder on but what is on the outside is less important than what is on the inside. Okay, you can make a reductionist comment about how hair is useful and that there are no bald eskimos or something (I have not researched that one), but the reality of seeing yourself 100% brazillian is sobering and the fact is it is easy to live without hair. 10 years on I regularly razor my head. Sure I don’t look 20, I didn’t lose my vanity I just grew up and put it into perspective. The irony of course was that when my hair grew back… it grew back thicker than it had been than when it was in my teens (and a different colour but thats another story) It lasted for about 3 months until I got a common cold and it fell out again. Moral of the story? Forget about hair loss, the worry alone is not worth it and may even be the cause!
I read somewhere that self-prescribing was illegal in some jurisdictions. It probably varies from state-to-state. I don’t know, I could be wrong. Ought to be a simple enough thing to answer.
This post is so ridiculous. Hair transplant doctors often have pre-filled out prescriptions so that their nurses or PAs can distribute them to customers at will. Despite being a potent drug that depresses natural hormone levels, there is no reason why Dr. Rassman or any other doctor would not prescribe the drug to a paying customer. I don’t see any added benefit to having a friend prescribe the drug for the aspiring doctor, except that he can tell himself that convince is acting according to medical ethics.
The post really has 2 themes: (a) whether this medical student (once he graduates) can prescribe to himself – which obviously he can’t because he is not licensed and (b) the bigger issue that Chris nicely raises. Any physician – perhaps one of his attending supervisors -should be able to write him a prescription to cover him while his main physician is on vacation, without worry about lack of due diligence. I’m also surprised at his “dilemma”.
You humorously did not fully understand my point. It really doesn’t matter whether he gets a friend to prescribe the medication since doctors (or their nurses) will literally prescribe the drug to anybody despite the fact it is a potent controlled substance. They don’t have to worry about due diligence because it is truly never conducted.
These celebrated medical ethics are a charade. What we really need are advances from other fronts on hair loss since the pharmaceutical company has its hands on a drug that is not terribly effective, non-invasive or safe.
I got your point. My point is that the medical student thought he could legally prescribe himself medication when he graduates. He can’t. As a side note, finasteride is also not a controlled substance (as narcotics and other medications are). Most doctors (and advanced nurses legally allowed to write prescriptions) do not hand out medication like candy (your issue with my term “due diligence”) and require an evaluation of the patient. Even online pharmacies require a prescription, which should only be given out after an in-person evaluation. Of course, there many health professional who don’t do what they should.
As a tangential: Biotech MD is sponsored by Merck and has conflicts of interest in his online postings.
Systemically adjusting your hormone levels is by definition invasive. For safety, there are clearly some very serious issues that can sometimes be found in patients who take the drug. For effectiveness, it works for some people but even Dr. Rassman said that in the majority of cases it loses its effectiveness over time.