Harm From Drug Name Mix-Ups "Intolerable"

Report: Number Of Easily-Confused Names Way Up, Harming Some 300,000 Patients A Year

(CBS)  The number of drugs with names that are too similar to those of other drugs has nearly doubled since 2004, and it's estimated that more than 300,000 patients are harmed each year by taking the wrong medications due to the resulting confusion, according to a new report.

The report's authors call that number "intolerable."

The association that sets the standards for drugs in the United States, U.S. Pharmocopeia, says there are more than 3,000 pair of drug names that look or sound uncomfortably alike, nearly twice as many as when the organization issued its last report on the subject four years ago.

On The Early Show Tuesday, medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips of CBS station WCBS-TV in New York said it's easier than ever to mix up drug names, due simply to the ever-rising number of drugs on the market.

One example Phillips points to: Celebrex and Celexa. They sound awfully similar, but one is used for arthritis pain, and the other to treat anxiety and depression. There are documented examples of people's health being harmed when they've taken one when they should have gotten the other.

Prozac and Prilosec are another example. Prozac is the widely-used antidepressant. Prilosec is used to treat heartburn.

Only "a handful" of cases have been documented in which patients died because of a drug mix-up, Phillips says, but when mistakes are avoidable, even a few are too many.

To cut down on the number of mistakes, Phillips says, "Everyone along the way can do better."

Doctors can write their prescriptions more clearly -- in block letters instead of the scribble they often use. And they can help the pharmacist out by writing down what the drug is for. If the doctor writes Prilosec but indicates it's for depression, the pharmacist has a clue that something is wrong, and can ask the doctor whether he or she meant Prozac.

The pharmacy can stock its shelves without drugs that are easily confused with each other sitting side-by-side.

And patients can protect themselves: When a pharmacist hands them a drug they're taking for the first time, they should ask what it's for. And if the answer isn't what they expect, ask the pharmacist to double-check everything before taking the drug home and using it.

[rtripp2]

Some doctors have handwriting that is difficult to impossible to decipher. This is not a new phenomenon. Patients or significant others who are handed prescriptions need to look at them and if they can''t tell what the doctor wrote down, ASK HIM OR HER "what does this say?". Then, ask the doctor to print it on the prescription so they can clearly read it. At the pharmacy, after being handed the bottle of pills OPEN IT and look closely at each pill. If you were on that drug previously but this time it looks different, SPEAK UP. Doctors and pharmacists are human and as such the odds are they will not do the absolute correct thing 100% of the time, unfortunately. That is why consumers can''t act like sheep and need to take responsibility for their own health and well being.

[Netterz]

Big Pharma Marketing and hawking there pills on TV doesnt help this either. What a person takes, is up to there DOCTOR, not from a TV ad. I for one, dont like having to explain herpes, and erectile disfunction, along with MANY others,to children, who should not have to hear these words or there explainations, till there much older. These conversations should remain in the docs office, not the family living room every night of the week.

[cyberus-2009]

In comparison to much of the equipment doctors have in their offices, a PDA that interfaces with the office computer to print out prescriptions is a minor expense.
If the FDA would make it a requirement and set the standards not only would the price for such drop but this problem would diminish greatly.