In short:
An antipsychotic medication often prescribed to people with schizophrenia or bipolar is in short supply.
Pharmacists and doctors have told the ABC they were not made aware of supply issues until the issue was raised by patients who could not find refills.
What’s next?
The TGA says shortages are expected to be resolved in a few months and in the meantime, people can try and source other generic versions instead.
Medication shortages are the biggest ongoing problem that no-one is talking about.
I’ve been a doc for 10 years and before COVID I can think of one medication shortage that impacted patient care, now it’s a constant issue. The TGA has 414 ongoing shortages that are listed including 41 that are critical (Medicine shortage reports database )
We’ve had to deal with shortages of everything from reflux medication to liquid morphine for palliative patients to a shortage last year of amoxy-fucking-cillin!
Many of these can be dealt with by substituting a similar medication but this has often lead to subsequent shortages of the alternatives. Needless to say it isn’t ideal to be chopping and changing antipsychotic medications.
Almost all antipsychotics need to be tapered off. If someone suddenly stops, it can end badly for them. Add to that the facts that quetiapine is one of the most common and effective APs, the importance of treating psychosis and mood stability as effectively as possible, and most people having to do trial and error to find the right medication for them? This is a recipe for disaster.