When Prescription Directions Are Unclear

“Take one to two pain pills by mouth every 4 to six hours”

To me that is clear.  I was reminded recently that it isn’t to all patients.

A patient complained of lack of relief from her pain medicines after surgery.  Her description of the pain didn’t suggest any complications so I ask how she was taking them.  I was looking for a way to safely use NSAIDS or Tylenol as a boost rather than giving her something stronger.

“I take one pain pill and then wait an hour to take another one.”

I prompted her to tell me when she took the next dose.

“I wait four hours and then take one pain pill, but I wait for six hours to take the next one.”

Ah!

I had mentioned to her and her caregiver that due to her small size she should begin with just one, then wait for 30 minutes to an hour to see if she needed the second one.  They were doing that, but the other part wasn’t clear.

“Take one to two pain pills by mouth every 4 to six hours”

1.  Take one pain pill every 4 hours.

2.  Take two pain pills every 4 hours.

3.  Take one pain pill every 6 hours.

4.  Take two pain pills every 6 hours.

….

Oh, but there are really more options aren’t there:

1.  Take one and half pain pill every 4 hours.

2.  Take one pain pill every 5 hours.

….

So she was taking the medicine in a correct way, but it wasn’t the optimal one for her.  We had a short discussion which seemed to help.

……………………..

There is much discussion about patients and compliance in taking medicine.  It starts with the physicians, nurse, and pharmacists.  I have to write good instructions.  Sometimes this is difficult to do and keep them short enough to go on the label.

With pain medicines it is nice for patients to know there is a range of effective, safe dosages.

U.S. Pharmacopeia has proposed labeling standards which can be viewed here. Comments on the proposed standards may be submitted to 17PrescriptionContainerLabeling@usp.org through March 31, 2011.  One of the changes is:

Give explicit instructions—Instructions should clearly separate the dose itself from the timing of each dose and use numeric characters (e.g., “Take 2 tablets in the morning and 2 tablets in the evening” rather than “Take two tablets twice daily”). …

Ambiguous directions such as ‘‘take as directed’’ should be avoided unless clear and unambiguous supplemental instructions and counseling are provided (e.g., directions for use that will not fit on the prescription container label)

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*


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