No Money for Meds? You’re in Good Company

If you’re cutting back on a prescription drug (or going without your meds altogether) beware: You’re setting yourself up for bigger health problems later.

Rachel Orr, head of services for disabled students at a college in the northeastern U.S., recently had a weekend from hell: She saw four upper-class students in a community hospital psychiatric ward for extreme agitation. It was exam time, so it was no surprise to Orr that the students felt overwhelming anxiety.

But then she found out that two of them hadn’t filled recent prescriptions for antidepressant drugs that campus doctors had prescribed. The students’ parents didn’t have insurance, and the students had neither dependent coverage nor their own policies to help cover the cost of drugs. The physicians hadn’t thought to ask the students if cost was an issue. And when the students found out what the drugs would cost, they told the pharmacy not to bother filling their order.

Orr was so shocked by that experience that she’s asked campus doctors and nurses to ask students whether they can afford their medication or pharmacy co-pay when a prescription is issued.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that not having enough money to pay for prescriptions is nothing new for many U.S. adults, especially those under 65, who are not covered by Medicare. The CDC’s new data show that younger adults are trying all sorts of things to keep the cost of prescription drugs down: 12.6 percent didn’t take the medication as their doctor prescribed it; almost 20 percent asked their doctor for a less expensive drug; 6 percent tried alternative therapies; and 2 percent bought prescription drugs from another country.

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Can anyone help Amanda Bynes? Bizarre behavior gets even more bizarre

Things are not looking that great for Amanda Bynes.

The actress was recently escorted from a gymnastics class in New York City because staffers were afraid she may harm herself or others, The Post reports.

Bynes apparently broke down crying after she did a cartwheel and her wig fell off. This after wandering around the mats, mumbling to herself. All while wearing fishnets and what The Post described as some kind of lingerie leotard.

During the past month, the “Hairspray” star has posted multiple pictures of herself in everything from blonde wigs to blue lipstick, and made a barrage of perplexing comments via Twitter such as “I want Drake to murder my vagina” and “it doesn’t matter what you think about yourself. All that matters is what your lover thinks of you.”

Last year, Bynes was booted from a spinning class at swanky West Hollywood gym Equinox for her questionable behavior, which involved wandering around the room taking off her top and applying makeup in the middle of the class.

She denied being plagued by personal problems and later insisted that she was “doing amazing.”

Others are not so sure.

“We see a cascade of distressing behaviors. I doubt she feels in control of all this. The question then is what’s happening below the surface,” said mental illness specialist Dr. John Sharp, who does not treat Bynes.

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