Labels are provided on your prescription or OTC (over the counter) drugs that you pick up from your local pharmacy. What is with all this information?

Illness affects us from time to time or chronically. We resolve the problem with a trip to our local pharmacy aka drug store to pick up a favorite drug that we know will help in providing an effective treatment when that cup of herbal tea doesn’t help in reducing the effects of whatever is ailing us or our loved ones.

Some medications are available without prescription and approved by the Food and Drug administration. These medications are generally low dose and considered the first line of treatment for illness. They are considered low hazard to the individual but will include warning labels and special packaging to make them relatively safe but they are not necessarily without risk. All drugs are toxic to our livers and kidneys so I drink a lot of water, if taking any medications.

Prescription drugs are considered to be sufficiently dangerous and must be carefully monitored or ‘controlled ’ by a knowledgeable health professional through use of a written prescription to prevent drug dependency and the rising prescription drug addictions. This covers such drugs that are considered dangerous, powerful or habit-forming. A pharmacist is forbidden to prepare or fill out any such requests unless he has a written prescription.

Four parts make up a drug prescription and are as follows ;

– Symbol *R* , from the Latin word, recipe meaning ‘take’.
– Inscription, specifies ingredients and quantity
– Subscription, tells the pharmacist how to compound the medication
– Symbol *S*, represent the Latin ‘signa’ meaning ‘mark’ aka signature

The signature is where the physician provides the instructions to be written on the label and outside of the package, to tell a person when and how to take the medicine and in what quantity.
All pharmacists keep a record of the prescriptions they have received in regards to these controlled medications. Now that explains file cabinets and drawers.

The risk of adverse effects upon a individual can still occur therefore education about the medication is considered of vital importance. Common drug interactions that occur can result from the following ;

– Additive, effect of two drugs given together and a double effect occurs
– Antagonistic, one drug interferes with the action of another
– Displacement, one drug replaces another at chemical level increasing effect of the one drug
– Incompatibility, two drugs mixed produce a chemical reaction and immediately withdrawn
– Interference, one drug promotes the rapid excretion of another therefore reducing effectiveness
– Synergistic, the effect of two drugs taken together is greater than each drug taken alone

Warning labels are affixed to these medications to provide directions for proper use and some of these warnings may be as follows ;

– May cause photosensitivity, the drug increases the skin’s sensitivity to sunburn
– Avoid dairy products, calcium causes a delay in effectiveness of the drug
– Take with food, absorption is increased with food and avoids nausea
– Avoid driving or heavy equipment operation, the dug may cause drowsiness, decrease alertness

A majority of pharmacies are including summary reports of the prescribed drug with more in- depth details in regards to self-care, warnings, signs and symptoms to be on the alert. This information is to provide take-home educational materials for help in returning us to our optimal health. Read related —> here and there.

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