Every time I've seen an American on TV take prescription pills it's at their wash basin straight from a bunch of bottles. In my country, almost all of our pills come in blister packs.
Is the lack of blister packs a cultural thing, or is there a reason people prefer bottles? Or is it just on TV?
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Yes, it’s a TV thing. We do have blister packs here. Certain medications, like birth control pills, come in this form.
We got both. Depends on the med what you get.
TV isnt always an accurate representation of daily life.
It just depends on the medication and how much you get.
TV uses tropes as shorthand to easily explain what’s going on. A pill bottle is more obvious than a blister pack that the character is taking prescription meds, as over-the-counter medicine comes in blister packs, too.
We take whatever form it comes in. Some of both are out there, but usually it isn’t a matter of choice.
The only blister packs I ever get, or have gotten, in prescription form are ZPacks (antibiotics), and birth control. Everything else that’s in pill form has been in a bottle.
Some over the counter meds are in blister.
I think the difference is if it comes from a manufacturer or a pharmacist a lot of the time.
Painkillers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen (paracetamol) usually come in bottles, but not always. A lot of commonly prescribed meds come in bottles. The only meds I personally tend to have around that don’t come in bottles are things like immodium/ibuprofen for upset stomachs or things that don’t come in pill form.
Hm … I think it’s probably cultural. We do have some drugs in blister packs, but I think bottles are a little more common in most cases. Blister packs, in my opinion, have more trash associated on a per dose basis. Bottles also tend to have a lot more pills, and are usually cheaper in the long run.
Most over the counter meds come in blister packs. Not all but most.
Most prescription meds come in bottles filled by a pharmacy. Not all, but most.
90% (rough estimate) of my prescription meds are in bottles. Probably closer to 95%…
most of my prescriptions are in bottles anyway. Only Z-packs (antibiotics) and Paxlovid have come in blister packs for me.
For OTC meds, some medications are available in both. Probably due to quantity. You don’t want to buy 100 pills in a blister pack.
For prescription meds, the majority are in bottles because they’re done by the pharmacist. There are some in blister packs and would come from the manufacturer. Zpack for one.
The blister packs you guys get are only used here in hospitals and nursing homes. The folks who are saying we DO have blister packs mean the kind of meds you buy over the counter at the store. But our pharmacies only dispense prescription medicines in bottles.
If I have a choice between a blister pack and a bottle, I always go with the latter. I have hand issues, and the packs are hard/painful for me to open ☹️ (so are the bottles sometimes lol)
Fortunately, it’s pretty rare that I find a med that only comes in a blister pack!
Vast majority are in bottles. The pharmacy gets them in big bottles and the pharmacist has to count them out. 30, 60 or 90 days depending on your insurance and what the doctor writes
Many meds do come in blister packs
Blister packs are used for some medications, particularly ones with stability issues, but they’re not nearly as universal as they are in some countries that have largely switched over. Bottles remain more common overall and are usually the default option for prescribed tablets/capsules.
We definitely have both and I personally hate the blister packs!
TIL to blame Europe for stupid blister packs
Most prescription medications come in the plastic bottles.
Occasionally things come in blister packs but it’s not typical.
Over the counter stuff is a lot more of a mix because of the Tylenol murders in 1982. The safety and accessibility of pills got locked down after someone poisoned some bottles of Tylenol and replaced them back on shelves in Chicago and people died, and they never caught them.
It tends to be based on how many pills you’re buying. If it’s going to be 12 pills often they’ll come in blister packs. If you’re getting 500 Tylenol or something it’s going to be in a bottle
We get both. My migraine meds come in a blister pack, but my husband’s allergy meds come in a bottle.
My guess is that bottles are more prevalent in cinema because they are easier to open and deal with rather than fussing with a blister pack. Plus you get the satisfying sound of pills rattling in a bottle.
We have both. Generally, smaller quantities are in blister packs and larger ones are in bottles. Prescriptions being either a 30 day or 90 day supply is common for most medications.
It depends on the medication. Some medications are more sensitive to things like moisture and will typically use blister packs. Others which are less sensitive or typically sold in large bottles to pharmacies who then dispense it in the required amount and those won’t have blister packs. Some other medications like Imodium are intentionally in hard to open blister packs to prevent abuse.
Prescription pills are almost always in bottles with a few exceptions. Over the Counter are sometimes in bottles, sometimes in blister packs. The people saying “some do come in bottles and some don’t” are needlessly complicating it. Most prescriptions come in bottles. Don’t know if its cultural or legal or just industry practice.
Blister packs work well for meds that will be taken for a limited time like antibiotics. But if you’re taking meds for a chronic condition it’s much easier to dispense them in bottles, especially since here our medical insurance often pays for 3 months’ worth of meds at a time. For large quantities blister packs are a pain and bottles are much easier to deal with.
The bottles definitely look better on-screen than watching someone press pills out of those annoying foil packets.
But yeah, like everyone is saying, we have both. I think the ones in blister packs are because the pills are more delicate? Or if there’s a really strict, specific dosage and schedule you need to follow for them, you can print that right on the individual pill portions on the foil.
People who get their meds by mail usually get blister packs. Institutions, like hospitals, care homes, etc., also usually use blister packs (source: been a nurse for 20 years). It is easier that way to keep track of med counts without having to empty out a bottle and count pills one by one, which can be a pain in a busy medical setting (not to mention rife for abuse/error). But if you pick up your meds in person at the pharmacy they usually come in bottles. This is because it is cheaper for pharmacies to keep a large supply on hand and portion it out as needed.
Many blister packs are ridiculously hard to remove the medication from. I have a neurological condition that affects my motor skills so I get the special lids that are not child proof.
If you get a prescription from your doctor then the pills will be in a bottle.
Blister packs are typically over the counter type things from a store.
People don’t really *prefer* bottles; you get what you get.
As others have said, *in general* prescription medications come in bottles, because pharmacies get pills in bulk, and then they put the pills in smaller bottles for our prescriptions. Pharmacies generally don’t have the onsite facilities to create blister packs.
Lots of non-prescription medications come in blister packs.
The non-prescription medication that doesn’t come in blister packs are things that we can buy in bulk and that aren’t “liqui-gels” that could be contaminated if each pill melted, got wet, etc..
For example, we can get bottles of 500 pills of ibuprofin. [https://www.ebay.com/itm/226717604751](https://www.ebay.com/itm/226717604751)
That would take too much room in blister packs (and would be wasteful). My understanding is that you can’t usually get that quantity of nonprescription medication at one time in most countries.
Personally I have a difficult time pushing pills out of blister packs (medical condition); my husband has to pop my Sudafed out of the card.
We have both. On TV they don’t want to waste time showing the character struggling to open the blister pack, hunting around fruitlessly for some scissors or nailclippers, then finally giving up and using their teeth.
Prescription drugs are usually dispensed in bottles at the pharmacy. The pharmacist needs to count out the correct amount from their big bottles into the smaller bottles patients get. The only prescription drugs I’ve ever received in blister packs were very expensive name-brand versions. Most people take generic versions of drugs.
As others have said, over the counter drugs, specifically those that contain decongestants, are often sold in blister packs. So, a bottle of Advil (ibuprofen) would come with pills loose in the bottle. But Advil Cold and Sinus (ibuprofen and pseudoephedrine – you don’t need a prescription but you do need to show ID at the pharmacy counter) comes in a box of blister packs.
I used to work as a pharmacy technician, so I can give an in-depth answer here:
Blister-packs are more common for prepackaged medications where there is either a specific dosing regimen (for example, Azithromycin or Medrol dose packs), where the ambient moisture of the air could damage the tablets (such as with Ondansetron ODT or other orally dissolvable tablets), or where handling multiple pills at once could be dangerous (such as with isotrentanoin). Compounding pharmacies might also use blister packs, but very few people in the US get their prescriptions from compounding pharmacies.
Most people in the US will get their medications from a retail pharmacy, who do not have the facilities to package medications into blister-packs. It is much more time and cost-effective to purchase bulk containers of the medication and manually count them into an amber vial instead.
Prescription drugs are going to be loose inside amber medicine bottles 95% of the time. There’s some exceptions when the medicine is fragile, or expensive and they give you a blister pack as that’s the only way its packaged.
OTC meds it more or less depends on the package size you buy – a small 12 count package of Benadryl will undoubtedly be in a blister pack, whereas a 300 count size will be loose pills in a bottle.
Hate blister packs. Hard to recycle plastic. Bottles 100%
A friend was a social worker that trained Residents (aka almost a doctor) on geriatric care. Part of the training was to have the doctor put on gloves to simulate the loss of sensation and yellow glasses to simulate failing eyesight, and then have them open blister packs, childproof bottles, and then sort pills by color. She said the frustration level rose quickly.