Need help sleeping?

For my field visit, I decided to go to my local Walgreens, where you can pretty much buy any over-the-counter drug you need. The drug aisles are almost overwhelming due to the amount of medicine they have. But how does one choose what box of pills they are going to get?

A lot of it has to do with the packaging. If a product looks more pleasing, there is a huge increase that you will want to buy that product. It’s all about what the manufacturers of the drug have put on the packaging. If it says that it is 200% more effective than other products, you are definitely going to think about buying that one. Sadly, most people that go pick out their over-the-counter drugs will not really take a close look at the side effects and the actual ingredients in the pills.

I chose to do an in-depth study of a sleeping aid pills that Walgreens had. The following table summarizes the main things I saw about the different medications. (Yes I did more than just one because I am interested in the different ingredients and the price differences.)

It is noted that I had to research the side effects online later because why would they advertise that on the drug packaging.

Name of Medicine (pills per serving)	Drug in Medicine	Amount of Drug per Serving	Price per pill	Side Effects
ZzzQuil Nighttime Sleep-Aid LiquiCaps (2 pills)	Diphenhydramine HCL	50 mg	$0.44	loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, constipation
Advil PM Pain Reliever/Nighttime Sleep-Aid Caplets (2 pills)	Ibuprofen	400 mg	$0.13	Wakefulness problems, drowsiness
	Diphenhydramine Citrate	76 mg
Walgreens Nighttime Sleep Aid Mini-Caplets (2 pills)	Diphenhydramine HCl	50 mg	$0.09	Drowsiness, diziness
Unisom SleepTabs, Nighttime Sleep-Aid Tablets (1 pill)	Doxylamine Succinate	25 mg	$0.23	daytime drowsiness, dry mouth, dizziness, and memory problems
Walgreens Wal-Som Nighttime Sleep Aid Tablets (1 pill)	Doxylamine Succinate	25 mg	$0.16	Drowsiness, dizziness, constipation, stomach upset, blurred vision

It was interesting to be looking at all of these in the store and then come back home and research them all. They all do relatively the same thing (or are supposed to) and yet the difference in price and dosage for them can be so different. The most interesting part about Walgreens was that the ZzzQuil Nighttime Sleep-Aid LiquiCaps was much emptier than the others. And this made sense in the store. It is a cool looking box and it is a trusted brand name that we are all familiar with. Yeah, the price was higher, but sometimes, especially when it come to medicine, brand names will always win over the generic Walgreens brand.

Then I came home and did a little digging on the side effects. I have never taken any sleep aid before (even though I have though about it many times) and was naturally curious if there were any consequences. The most shocking of them all was for the Unisom SleepTabs, Nighttime Sleep-Aid Tablets. A possible side effect to this sleep aid was memory problems. What?! Why would anyone take a pill that could have that kind of consequence? Than again, why do people keep taking ZzzQuil Nighttime Sleep-Aid LiquiCaps when the side effects are loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and constipation? Simple. It commercial time on tv, you see ads for it in the magazine, you see ads online even. We are so much more familiar with ZzzQuil than anything else. This is why I think we always buy more expensive drugs than just generic and why ZzzQuil is the number one seller for sleep aids. 

The following is a link to a commercial for ZzzQuil.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wRyH/vicks-zzzquil-liquicaps-fall-asleep-fast

They make falling asleep look so easy and simple and nice! I must go get it now!

I think that any brand of medication that can get to you in forms of tv ads and magazine ads are much more likely to be more expensive, and more likely chance that we will buy them. Do we look at the drug in it and if it is effective? Nah. We saw the ad on tv and it worked for the actor! More and more research has been going into sleep aids and some studies are showing that Doxylamine Succinate is an up and coming compound that seems to be working as well if not better than Diphenhydramine HCL, the compound in ZzzQuil. So not only are we paying a lot of money for name brand drugs, but we may not be getting the highest performing drug in our medications either. There are a few studies out currently that talk about direct to consumer advertisement in relation to pharmaceuticals. They show that when we are exposed to a branded product ad, we are much more likely to buy that product. Next time you’re in the store buying some over-the-counter medicine, think about if your buying something maybe from a persuasive ad or just because the name brand “works” better. Chances are that it doesn’t work better, and it will cost you more. This is a good tie in with our debate from this past week!

Here is a link if you are interested more in the direct to consumer advertisements in the drug industry.

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the-hidden-benefits-of-tv-drug-ads1