What determines whether a medication is sold OTC or prescription?

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Basically what the title says. Is it because of the cost of the medication? At first I assumed it was because of the potential for abuse for some meds, but Benadryl for instance is sold OTC, and some non-addictive medications are sold through prescription only. I’m from America, for reference, as I suspect it’s different in other countries?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

In general, the criteria is generally along the lines of “is it a common condition that can be reliably identified and monitored by the patient, is the medicine safe enough at a wide range of doses that careful titration isn’t necessary, and is there any potential for harm/addiction if misused?”.

(And then there’s acetaminophen which is somehow OTC)

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