(Reuters). Russians have rushed stockpiles of antidepressants, sleeping tablets, and contraceptives since the outbreak in conflict in Ukraine. Data released Thursday revealed that people bought a month’s supply in less than two weeks.

While official polls indicate that the majority of Russians approve of President Vladimir Putin’s decision not to send troops to Ukraine, there are social media and interviews which suggest that many Russians were upset by the harsh sanctions the West imposed upon Moscow to stop it from withdrawing its forces.

Numerous foreign companies have declared that they will suspend their Russian operations. The rouble has fallen sharply against the US dollar, while prices have shot up for most everyday items since February 24, when Putin launched what he described as a “special operation” in Ukraine.

Valentina, a Moscow resident said, “I take L-thyroxine myself as I have thyroid issues so I’m on it every day and I worry about it.”

“That’s the reason I bought it for a couple months in advance because I worry if I can find it later in pharmacies. “People are asking everywhere for it.”

Analytical company DSM Group gathered sales data for Vedomosti on Thursday. It showed that Russians bought 270.5 millions medicinal products in pharmacies between February 28 and March 13, for 98.6 Billion Rupees ($1.04 Bill).

This was nearly the same as the January sales data, when Russians purchased 288,000,000 items from pharmacies at 100 billion rubles.

Although the data did not identify specific brands, it showed an increase in foreign-produced drugs and a growing demand for Russian-made pharmaceuticals.

It showed a sharply rising demand for sleeping pills, antidepressants and insulin.

Sergei Shulyak was the general director of DSM Group which gathered the data and said that it was “fear”.

The first was the possibility that things could become more costly. The second was that they wouldn’t have access to medicines in time. These were the fears that moved people. People waited in long lines to buy everything at the pharmacies.

Shulyak stated that the “hysteria,” which Shulyak called it, was taking hold. However, he said there was now an immediate shortage of certain medicines but that he believed the situation would stabilize in time. Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers are still capable to manufacture generic drugs. Many foreign producers continue to supply Russia with their goods, even though they have a higher price.

But he cautioned that some Russian drug manufacturers were facing problems in sourcing certain ingredients to produce their drugs, due to deteriorating West-Russian relations.

Some Russians stated that panic did not affect them.

Vladimir, a Moscow resident, said that there might be “shortages”, especially if medicine is imported. However, I believe it all will come back. Politics is politics and economics is economics. “They (the drug manufacturers) all need to sell, they all need to gain profit, so it’ll all be back.”

($1 = 95.0000 roubles)