The potential benefits from using medications are enormous. At times, they can reduce the need for surgery and hospital care. They can prevent untimely deaths and improve the quality of life. However, the improper use of medicines may pose significant risks. Factors that contribute to the misuse of medicine include poor communication between the health care provider and the patient. Sometimes, many physicians will be treating the same patient with various medications. This can lead to potential drug reactions or interactions. Individuals may not be compliant in taking medications as they have been prescribed. Communication about the type of medication you are using, its side effects and its purpose needs to be clearly explained to the patient. You may not have received adequate information about possible drug reactions from your doctor or your pharmacist. In addition, you may not have asked questions. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your medicines. Ask questions and speak up when you do not understand information you are given. Also, ask for written instructions about your medicines. If you are taking several medicines, different dosage schedules can be confusing and inconvenient. In addition, taking several medicines increases the potential for adverse drug reactions. Furthermore, if you are taking nonprescription medicines along with your prescription medicines, you may be increasing the chances of unwanted drug effects. Another problem is that a medicine prescribed for one of your medical problems may worsen another illness or condition. In addition, a new symptom may not be caused by an illness but by a reaction to a drug. Sometimes a symptom can be treated by reducing the dosage of a medicine instead of taking a new medicine. Ask your doctor if instead of taking another medicine you can try non-drug treatments first such as diet, stress management, and exercise. In addition, ask if you can begin therapy at a low dosage of a medicine. Keep a list of all medicines you take and review this list with your doctor(s) on every visit. This is particularly important if you are seeing a new health care provider. Ask your doctor if you can reduce the dosage of any medicine you are taking or if you can safely stop taking any medicine. Your doctor may prescribe a medicine for you without realizing how many medicines you are already taking that were prescribed by other doctors. Often you may end up taking too many medicines, some of which may interact harmfully with each other. It is important to inform every doctor who treats you about all the medicines you are taking, including alcohol and nonprescription drugs. Bring a list of these medicines when you visit any of your doctors. Aging affects your body's absorption, use, and elimination of medications. It may be harder for your liver to break down medicines and get rid of them from your body. Your kidneys may be slower to clear medicines from your system. Therefore, medicines stay in your body longer, which can become a serious problem. Therefore, older people tend to be more sensitive to medications Drug action varies widely in older people, making it difficult for your doctor to predict your response to a medicine. You usually need lower doses than younger people to achieve the desired effects and to avoid toxic (poisonous) overdoses. Ask your doctor to adjust your drug dosage to your age. Also, ask which drugs are most likely to cause problems and about symptoms that may result. The difficulty of predicting your response to a drug contributes to the tendency of both the doctor and the older person to mistake undesirable medication effects for the natural effects of aging. Disorientation, fatigue, depression, and fainting are often caused by medicine but people may mistake these symptoms as old age. Adverse reactions to a medicine can occur soon after you begin taking a medicine or after you have been on a medicine for years. You can develop an allergy to a medicine at any point. Ask your doctor if he or she will monitor the effects of the medicine or medicines you are taking. Ask your doctor what side effects you might have. Unwanted side effects of medication may include one or more of the following: falls and muscular weakness faintness when rising quickly from a bed or chair confusion, forgetfulness, drowsiness, fatigue depression or sadness difficulty breathing skin rashes and bruising nausea, indigestion, vomiting constipation, diarrhea, incontinence, or difficulty urinating headache, ringing in the ears, or blurred vision difficulty sleeping, irritability, or nervousness dry mouth parkinsonism (tremors, stiffness, and slowness of movement or jerkiness of the legs) a feeling of being unable to sit still or sit down uncontrollable movements of the face, such as sticking out the tongue and sucking motions. Call your doctor: If any symptom, such as vomiting, breathing difficulties, headache, confusion, or drowsiness is severe or long-lasting. If symptoms develop soon after you have started taking a new medicine or after eating a certain food. If symptoms such as forgetfulness, depression, confusion, or fatigue develop slowly over a period of weeks or months. Some adverse effects take a while to show up. If you suspect that a symptom is related to a combination of medicine and alcohol. The use of alcohol may worsen side effects of your medicines. When a mild symptom, such as dry mouth, lessens your pleasure in life. Taking Medicines as Prescribed If you are taking several medicines, be careful not to get confused and take too much of one or more medicines. Avoid taking a lower dosage of a medicine than is prescribed. Often the medicine will not be effective at a lower dosage. Your doctor may increase the dosage or switch to a more potent medicine, which may have more side effects. It is best to take the dosage prescribed for you.
Causes of Safe Use Of Medicine
Signs and Symptoms of Safe Use Of Medicine
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Medical Content Last Updated on 07/12/2008
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