Beer List Alphabetical
Medication errors that can kill
The numbers are simply staggering: Each year 1.5 million people become ill or seriously injured by errors medication, and die 100,000. Yet all of these deaths are preventable. What is the answer? We must protect ourselves. Here are ten medication errors Experts say they are more likely to kill or cause serious damage.
What can happen anywhere in the chain of transmission: Maybe the doctor's handwriting illegible, or the name enters the pharmacy team incorrectly, or the swap occurs when the wrong drug is pulled from the shelves. "Most pharmacies aside drugs in alphabetical order, so you have drugs with similar names next to each other, which makes it more likely for someone to take the bad one "Says Michael Negrete, chief executive of the nonprofit California foundation Pharmacy.
According to the Medication Error Reporting Program National, the confusion caused by similar drug names accounts for up to 25 percent of all errors. Examples of commonly confused pairings include Adderall (A stimulant used to treat ADHD) compared to Inderal (a beta-blocker used for high blood pressure) and Paxil (an antidepressant) against the Taxol rhyme (a list of these pairs often confused turns the pages.
How to avoid: When you get a new prescription, ask your doctor to write what it does, and the name and dosage. If the recipe says depression, but serves to stomach acid to be a red flag for the pharmacist. When you are picking up a prescription at the pharmacy, check the label to make sure the drug name (brand or generic) dosage and usage instructions are the same as in the recipe. (If you do not have the recipe to yourself because the doctor sent her directly, ask the pharmacist to compare with what the doctor sent the label.)
Any medicine you take has potential side effects. But the problems can go whenever you take two or more medicines at the same time, because there are so many ways they can interact with each other, says Anne Meneghetti, MD, clinical director of communication for Epocrates, a drug management system for physicians. "Drugs can interfere with each other, and that is what is most likely to hear. But it can also increase each other, or one drug may increase side effects caused by another drug, "said Meneghetti.
Two of the most common – and dangerous – extension of these interactions involve blood pressure and dizziness. If you are taking a medicine that has a potential side effect of raising blood pressure, and then start taking a second medication with the possible effect the same, your blood pressure may rise dangerously on the combination of both. One drug that lists of "dizziness" is disturbing enough, but two with that side effect could lead to falls, fractures, and worse.
Note special care if you have been prescribed the blood thinner Coumadin (warfarin), "the king of drug interactions," according to the Pharmacy Foundation Michael Negrete California. "You only need the right amount of Coumadin in the system to work properly, too much or too little and you may have problems as serious heart arrhythmias or stroke. But many other drugs interfere with its action to be taken carefully. "
How to avoid it: Ask your doctor or pharmacist about potential side effects when you get a new prescription, and make sure the pharmacy gives written impressions about the product for review. Keep all handouts in a file, so that when you get a new prescription, you can compare information proportionate to the charity of your recipes. If you see the same side effects listed for more than one medicine, ask your doctor or pharmacist if is cause for concern.
Think of this as the syndrome of Heath Ledger, says Michael Negrete of Pharmacy Foundation of California. It is very easy to end with various medications that have similar actions, although it is prescribed to treat various conditions. "You might have a drug prescribed to treat pain, other prescribed for anxiety, and one that is given a sleeping pill – but they are all sedatives, and the combined effect is toxic, "said Negrete.
The risk of this type of overdose is greater with drugs that work by pressing the central nervous system. These include narcotics such as codeine, benzodiazepines as Ativan, Halcion, Xanax, Valium, tranquilizers barbiturates such as Seconal, some of the newer drugs, such as BuSpar, for anxiety, and popular Ambien sleeping pill.
But it can also occur sedation counter medications, seemingly innocent as antihistamines (diphenhydramine, commonly known as Benadryl, is one of the worst offenders), cough and cold remedies and sleeping pills over the counter. This type of drug is responsible for many mixed Drug-induced deaths, especially among younger adults.
How to avoid: Heed warnings container of-the-counter drugs more, and the risks described in the documentation of the recipes. Keywords are sleeping, drowsiness, dizziness, sedation, and their equivalents. If more than one of your prescriptions or OTC drugs warns against taking while driving, or notes that may cause drowsiness, be careful. This means that the drug has a sedative effect on the central nervous system and should not be combined with other drugs (including alcohol) that have the same effect.
The drugs are prescribed in a variety of units of measurement, units are usually notated using abbreviations or symbols – which offers a range of opportunities for disaster. All it takes is a misplaced decimal point and becomes 1.0 mg to 10 mg, an error of ten times the dose that could cause a fatal overdose.
Some dosing errors occur more extreme when someone mistakes one milligram a in micrograms, resulting in a dose 1,000 times. This happens especially in the hospital with intravenous drugs, but we know that happens with outpatient medications as well. Insulin, the main treatment for diabetes, makes that some of the worst drug errors because it is measured in units, which is abbreviated with a U, which may seem like a zero or a four or any number of other things when he wrote.
Another common problem, says pharmacist Benjamin Bona, Director of Medicines Quality Improvement at the American Society Pharmacist-Health System, is getting a different frequency – so, for example, a drug that is supposed to be once a day is given four times day.
How to avoid: Make sure your doctor's writing is clear in the original recipe, if you can not read the indicated doses, is likely that the nurse and the pharmacist will have difficulty. When collecting your prescription from the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist to verify the dose to make which is within the range that is typical for that drug. At the hospital when a nurse is about to administer a new medication, ask what it is and ask to be check your letter to make sure that is right for you and that the dose is clearly indicated. Do not be afraid to talk to if you think you are about to get medicine wrong or the wrong dose.
There is a large amount of drugs that come with that nice bright orange warning label attached, saying not to drink when taking them. However, the label may fall, or not linked in the first place, or you just might really need that cocktail and the figure is going to be OK, "just this once." But alcohol, combined with a long list of painkillers, sedatives and other drugs, it becomes a deadly poison in these situations. In fact, many experts now say should not drink when in * * any medicine without first checking with your doctor.
Alcohol can also have dangerous interactions with OTC drugs such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and cough and cold – and if the cough or cold medicines contained alcohol, which could end with alcohol poisoning. Alcohol can also compete certain drugs for absorption, leading to dangerous interactions. Mixing alcohol and certain antidepressants, for example, and you have the possibility of a dangerous blood pressure, whereas alcohol and certain sedatives such as Valium or Ativan may depress the heart rate enough to put in a coma.
How to avoid: When you get a new prescription, ask your doctor or pharmacist if the medicine is safe to drink alcohol while. If you are a heavy drinker and you know it's likely that you drink while taking this medicine, tell your doctor. She may be necessary to prescribe something else. Also, read the booklets that come with your prescriptions to see if alcohol is mentioned as a risk. And read the labels of all prescription medicines with care, both to see if alcohol is mentioned as a risk and also to see whether alcohol is an ingredient in the medication itself.
As we age, our bodies process drugs so different. In addition, the list of Beers, "is a great resource if you or someone you are caring for more than 65 years.
How to avoid: Beers Take the list with your doctor and ask him to check with all prescription drugs. Unfortunately, a recent survey found that among Beers 65 years, more than 16 percent had recently filled prescriptions for two or more drugs from the Beers list, which suggests that many doctors remain uninformed about the risks of these drugs. If you find that you or a family member over age 65 are taking medications that are considered at risk, you may need to take the initiative and ask your doctor to find alternatives.
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