Medicines work only if they are prescribed and taken correctly, but human error too often enters into the mix: According to a report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 1.5 million people are injured by medication errors each year in the United States.
Many mistakes occur in the hospital when doctors prescribe a medication and dosage, and the patient is given the wrong drug or the right drug but the wrong dosage. Many errors also occur in your own home and are easily preventable. Are you making any of the following mistakes?
1. Taking the Wrong Dosage
Double-check your doctor's prescription orders and make sure the pharmacist interprets them correctly. A misplaced decimal can increase the dosage from 1 mcg to 10 mg, and the difference between a microgram (mcg) and a milligram (mg) is 1,000 percent. A mix-up can be fatal. In liquid medications, such as cough medicines, don't mistake a teaspoon for a tablespoon.
2. Confusing medications with similar names
Many prescription drugs have similar names even though they are intended for completely different medical problems. The Medication Error Reporting Program says that confusion over drugs with similar names causes up to 25 percent of all medication mistakes. For instance, Paxil, an antidepressant, can easily be confused for Plavix, a blood-thinning medication, due to a doc's sloppy handwriting or a pharmacist shelving drugs with similar names side-by-side. Always double-check.
3. Combining similar medicines
If you're taking medication for several conditions, it's easy to inadvertently be given drugs that have similar effects on the body, although they were prescribed to treat different conditions. "You might have one medication prescribed to treat pain, another prescribed for anxiety, and another that's given as a sleeping pill — but they're all sedatives, and the combined effect is toxic," said Michael Negrete of Pharmacy Foundation of California in an article by Caring.com.
The most dangerous combinations are prescription drugs that depress the central nervous system, and include painkillers, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills that can be combined to form a lethal brew. But even a mixture of over-the-counter meds such as antihistamines, cough and cold medicines, and OTC sleeping pills can kill. If drug information warns the medication can make you sleepy, beware and don't combine it with other sedating drugs, including alcohol.
4. Mixing alcohol with medicine
Combining alcohol with many medications, including painkillers and sedatives, can damage your liver and possibly trigger deadly consequences. Over-the-counter drugs aren't exempt from dangers. Combining antihistamines such as Benadryl with alcohol as well as cough and cold medicines — which also contain alcohol — can cause alcohol poisoning. And alcohol mixed with antidepressants can cause blood pressure to rise, while alcohol combined with sleeping pills can lower your heart rate to dangerous levels.
5. Combining prescriptions with supplements and OTC meds
Over-the-counter medications are still drugs, and are sometimes simply a less potent variety of the prescription version. Supplements are also drugs. For instance, St. John's wort is a common herbal antidepressant and can react with prescription antidepressants. And the old standby aspirin can interfere with both the heart medicine digoxin and the blood thinner Coumadin.
6. Ignoring the label
Even though they're freely available, common over-the-counter drugs have side effects from accidental overdoses or overuse, especially with drugs such as acid blockers or pain killers. Even aspirin can cause potential serious gastrointestinal bleeding problems, and it shouldn't be taken casually — and especially not on a daily basis without consulting with your physician first. Always read the label and follow directions carefully.
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