Duromine

During my locum last week, came a middle-aged woman, wanted to continue with her weight losing pill, Duromine. Well, frankly speaking, I don't know much about this drug, what I knew, it is a apetite supressant drug. Thinking that she might just came in and said, "Doc, I want to continue with my Duromine...", I was wronged (cause I knew nothing about Duromine!). She came to test my knowledge about the pill, I supposed.

By the way, this patient first presented three months earlier with a body weight of 74kg. She wanted to lose weight, and the doctor in-charge recommeded her Duromine. Well, on top of that, she was also adviced on some strict diet (wonder what that was) and some physical activities.

Impressively, she was 60kg when I saw her (i.e. lost 14kg in 3 months). She then asked me, whether she should continue with the drug.

Embarrassed but frankly, I told her, I didn't not know. I suggested to her to come again to see back the original doctor who prescribed her. This lady was quite chatty. She asked me too many questions regarding the drug which I had no knowledge of. I told her straight off, that, I was working in the government hospital and we do not have that drug.

It was real embarassing, as in the end, she taught me back how the drug was been taken, dosage and frequency as well as some side-effects.

What a shame, though we have a very strong Endocrine unit, no one could treat obesity like the way GPs do. I don't think there is any weight losing medications available in the government hospital's pharmacies.

This taught me an important lesson and made me determined to find out more about Duromine.

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