I came to Japan at the end of March with a three-month supply of prescribed antidepressants. To be accurate, I packed a six-month supply, but I lost my bag, so it’s almost out. The drug in question, Duloxetine (Cymbalta) is commercially available in Japan, so it’s not illegal, but obviously I do need a prescription. I should have acted on this far earlier, but I thought I was; I have an appointment with an English-speaking psychiatrist for the 28th, so I thought it was fine, but when I checked recently, I noticed that it’s *July* 28th. I got June and July mixed up.
So now I have four brain pills left and a month to go before I can get more. What options do I have to attain some kind of emergency supply? My family filled a prescription back home, so they have a bottle they could send me, but from what I’ve read, sending psychotropic drugs through the mail is just straight-up not allowed, and even if they were, I need to apply for a import document which is intimidatingly confusing and may take days to be approved. I have my medication bottle with me, so I can prove my US prescription, but is there any way to get a Japanese pharmacy to honor that? I can speak some Japanese, but not enough to have a conversation this important.
What are my options? Is waiting until the 28th my best option? I did ask the pharmacy to let me know if anything opens up sooner, but that’s not reliable. I’ve started taking a pill every other day to try to extend what I have, but that alone is already causing some weird side effects. I also tried calling the US embassy in Tokyo, but the automated voice directed me to a line that is open during EST business hours. Has anybody been in a situation similar to this before? What can I do?
EDIT: Thank you all for your help. I feel more than a bit silly now, but contacting the clinic about the issue has worked. They said that I can come in on June 28th and get a one-month supply as long as I bring my prescription (which is on the bottle) with me. It was such an easy fix, but it honestly didn’t occur to me. I’m going to be okay. Thanks again.
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Wait where Reid you read it’s illegal to send them by mail? This is anecdotal obviously but about 5 years ago my mom sent me a year’s supply of SSRI medication to me in Japan. It was a massive bottle. I didn’t (and she didn’t) do any special paperwork for it, she just included the bottle of pills, and the prescription paper from the doctor.
The package also included other random stuff like snacks or deodorant. The package was opened and investigated by customs but nothing was removed and I was not in any kind of trouble for anything.
Doesn’t seem like it could be illegal or I’d probably have gotten in a lot of trouble for that I’d assume.
Call the psychiatrist’s office. Tell them you’ve got basically X days left and are on the Ymg maintanance dose. Strangely enough this is the medication they gave me for neurotropic pain from my accident earlier this year (moderately severe nerve damage from a shattered arm – but I’m only on a 30mg a day maintanance dose – that was enough rather than transitioning me to 60mg so it’s a common enough medication).
Explain that you’re almost out of your medication and that you need to get enough to cover until your visit. Bring your old bottles/prescriptions with you. They should be willing to write you a prescription for however many days until your next visit without actually seeing you. You’re going to be seeing the doctor monthly for a while then every 2 months after that, expect it, it’s just the way things are done here.
AFAIK, the import form is only necessary when importing over one-month’s worth at a time. My mum used to send me my antis each month and I never ran into an issue.
What about going to Japanese speaking psychiatrist for just this month? If you prepare enough and with your phone acting as a translator, I don’t think it’ll be as bad as waiting a whole month without brain pills.
Yes, you should probably be able to get a new prescription tomorrow if you visit a Japanese speaking clinic. Maybe an hour or so waiting until you see the doctor, some hassle with phone translations but then you hopefully would get a months prescription to collect basically immediately at the local pharmacy. You could probably also check with the clinic you have an appointment with to see if they can squeeze you in, most clinics here do ”walk-ins”.
It’s possible a regular physician will be able to give you a prescription. Take the medication you have left to a regular doctor and explain the situation and that you need the Japanese equivalent prescribed, even just a week’s worth if that helps. (Maybe use your phones translation app if they don’t speak English?)
I’ve made the experience that they don’t really question to prescribe anything you tell them you’ve been taking. They are however more reluctant to give more than a month worth of meds though.
Go see a shrink that can speak English. But a normal GP can also prescribe Cymbalata. (It is not a drug that a normal GP will tell you they cannot dish out.) If it is really bad, get to the ER.
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As others have noted, bring your script and the bottle. Docs don’t like people coming in with drug orders. And, no, a pharmacy will not fill your script unless it is from a doc.
Glad you found a solution. Going off Cymbalta is a process that needs to be done very carefully and can still mess you up for years.
Another option is to use a generics pharmacy from abroad. You can legally import up to one month’s supply at a time without a prescription. I’ve used this one on the past — admittedly not for anti depressants — and despite the level of early-2000s website sketch, I’ve been really happy with their services
https://www.generics.greencrosspharmacy.online/anxiety-depression?page=2