Just something I've been thinking about, how many great and potentially salubrious drugs which in the United States require a prescription are available in Thailand sans prescription.

I am moving to Thailand in just a little more than a month, and in particular I was wondering if I might hope to find Zelnorm without a prescription. Zelnorm is a drug which is helpful for some people with chronic idiopathic constipation,(a group to which I may accurately be included) and to some women with constipation-predominant IBS. Would anyone out there be able to afford me any kind of expectation whether this particular drug may be obtainable without prescription? (A prescription which, at least in the U.S. for someone without insurance, would cost at least 300$ simply for the visit to the gastroenterologist.)

I'm also curious if any of the ADD drugs - ie, ritalion and aderol - are available over the counter.

As for the incontinence drugs, I don't know.

Ritlain is called "Rubifen" and is only available upon prescription, and I've found that regular pharmacies don't dispense it. My inaccurate guess is that rubifen here costs about half what it costs in the USA.

In Thailand there are 3 classes of drugs -- available over the counter on demand, available only from a licensed pharmacist, and available only from a hospital or clinic. Ritalin is a controlled substance and falls into the last group, but it is cheap as a generic equivalent is produced locally.

I don't know if Zelnorm (tegaserod) is available in Thailand but if it is, it would probably be so over the counter, but not all that cheap as it is still under patent and thus would be an import.

In any case, a visit to a specialist will only set you back $15 - 25 and is easily arranged, at least in Bangkok.

and remember ---- that the easy faboo hospitals make a lot of their $$ in the Lab and the Pharmacy

While Hospitals like Chula in BKK don't really. <My Rx filled at Bangkok-Phuket Hospital is $$$$ and filled at Culalongkorn hospital in BKK is CHEAP!