Good morning everyone,
Whether it's a simple cold or a chronic illness, medication and medicine use vary from country to country and culture to culture.
When you are used to certain brands or types of drugs, being in a country like Norway with different rules can affect your daily well-being.
Some drugs also differ in name, price, dosage, active molecule, so we would like to hear your opinion on these issues:
Have you ever had difficulties finding familiar or useful medicines for your health in your host country?
Have you ever been faced with a shortage of medicines in Norway?
Would you have said that in Norway drugs are more or less expensive than in your home country? Do you find them more or less effective or of similar quality?
What is the place of alternative medicines in your host country? Have you ever used them?
Thank you in advance for your feedback,
Loïc
Medication in Norway
the medication prices vary depending on what kind of prescription. If you have the "blue" prescriptions, they cost about 30kr. These are usually some kind of pills that you take every day to manage a condition, like heart medications. Other medications like some inhalers cost up to 150kr, and a course of treatment with antibiotics are also about the same price.
medications for managing a condition also count towards your "frikort" limit. Doctor visits, specialist visits, and medications all are tallied up every year and when you reach the limit (around 2000kr) all your treatment is free after that.
There are occasional shortages, published by Statens Legemiddelverk, here: https://legemiddelverket.no/legemiddelmangel
I've only experienced that the strength I use was short but that they had the half strength available, or that I could not get the paracet suspension for children, but an acceptable general substitute was available.
Medications in Norway are much more strictly regulated than in my home country (USA) so it has taken some getting used to that there are so many things I can't get in a pharmacy, but you can still get pretty much anything you need.
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