(Reuters). Russians have rushed in to buy anti-depressants and sleeping pills since the outbreak of 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 into Ukraine with thousands, the reality is that many Russians were upset by the harsh sanctions the West imposed upon Moscow to stop it from withdrawing its forces.

Many international brands announced that they would suspend operations in Russia. In addition, the value of the ruble against the dollar has dropped dramatically. Prices for everyday goods have skyrocketed since Putin’s February 24th announcement about what he called a “special operation.”

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.”

I purchased a few months’ supply in advance because I was concerned about whether I would be able find it later in the pharmacies. “People are asking everywhere for it.”

Analytical company DSM Group compiled 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.

Data that did not include specific brands showed a rise in the demand for pharmaceuticals made abroad, with correspondingly, a rising demand for Russian products.

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

Sergei Shulyak (general director at DSM Group), the company responsible for the collection of the data told Reuters that “it was fear.”

“The initial fear was that prices would rise and that the medicines that people need might not be in stock. These fears were real and they moved people. People waited in long lines to buy everything at the pharmacies.

Shulyak stated that the “hysteria”, or panic over medicines had set in. However, he said that the situation would stabilize soon with Russian pharmaceutical companies still producing generic drugs. Many foreign manufacturers continue to supply Russia with their goods, even though they are selling them at higher prices.

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, “There may be some (shortages), especially if it is imported medicine, but I believe it will all return because 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)