epilepsy and medications

[komangulo]

I have epilepsy and I will be 1 month in Thailand, I would like to know if there is any way to buy these medicines there.

And if that's where it could be: Zonegram, Vimpat and Tegretol.

 

Greetings and thank you.

[Sheryl]

Zonegran and Vimpat are available here but only as an expensive imports. They are   controlled drug which means it can only be gotten on prescription from pharmacies which meet certain criteria, which in Thailand usually means from a hospital, and a hospital will require that it be presecribed by one of their doctors, further adding to the cost. In addition, private hospitals substantially mark up drug prices (as much as 5 fold) and I am not sure that government hospitals would carry these drugs.

 

Carbamazepine as available both as tegretol (import, expensive) and several locally made brands (inexpensive). Unlike the other two meds, it can be purchased over the counter and any large pharmacy will have it.

 

You are allowed to bring a 30 day supply of prescription medications with you for personal use when you enter Thailand , and I suggest you do that for at least the Vimpat and Zonegran as obtaining them here will be time consuming and expensive.  While the official limit is 30 day supply they are not strict on that as long as amounts  look consistent with personal use, so if there is a chance you might stay more than 1 month,  suggest bringing more accordingly.