It may surprise you to know that many of the drugs used for dogs work effectively for people, too. Many of the very largest pharmaceutical companies have separate veterinary divisions. Drug development for animals often occurs parallel to human pharmaceutical research.
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But while there are many similarities between people and dogs regarding medications, there are also significant differences of which you should be aware. Thus, while a drug such as Prozac (fluoxetine HCI), which is NOT licensed for use in animals, may be used by some vets to manage certain conditions, other medications, such as Tylenol (acetaminophen), are not used in dogs and can actually be extremely toxic. Don’t attempt to judge on your own which human drugs are safe for use in dogs. This is definitely a job for your veterinarian.
On the other hand, there are some wonderful medications available for dogs that have not yet made the transition to human medicine. For one thing, the parasite medicines that were alluded to earlier as being safe and effective for dogs are being used, on an experimental basis, in humans. In general, these products are far safer than most of the medicines currently used, and they work much better than the ones physicians are currently dispensing.
(Check out Study in Dogs with CCD links with Human with OCDs)
Ideally, neither you nor anyone associated with you will have any of these parasite problems, but at some point in the future, the medications used to keep your dog parasite-free may start appearing in pharmacies for use in people.
