Stay safe from drug name confusion
If all drug names basically sound the same to you, you're not alone.
The FDA now rejects about one-third of potential drug names because of potential confusion. In fact, the agency will launch a long-overdue pilot program next year that will look to screen new drug names even more aggressively.
Many in the medical community – myself included -- feel name confusion is underreported because health practitioners fear the consequences of being blamed in name mix-ups. Still, it's estimated that up to 1.5 million Americans are harmed each year through a variety of medication errors, and name mix-ups could be responsible for a quarter of those.
Some docs had hoped that computerized prescribing would put a dent in the problem, but there is still the prospect of clicking on the wrong multicolored bar to order the wrong drug. And computer age or no, there's always good, old-fashioned miscommunication. Doc has a lapse and says, "You've been taking Celebrex (a painkiller), right?" and you, figuring the doctor knows best, agree, when in fact you are on the antidepressant Celexa.
You should always question your doctor or pharmacist if this month's pills look different from the last batch. Someone may have goofed. And it doesn't hurt if the doctor notes on the prescription the indication for the medication — writing, for instance, "Lamisil for fungal infection" or "Lamictal for epilepsy/seizures" — an extra bit of record keeping and care that just might prevent serious harm for patients.
Also, an influential pharmaceutical group has launched a free Web reference to allow docs and patients to easily check on the name of the drug, and cross-reference it with similarly named drugs that might exist for another purpose entirely. Take a look at the Drug Error Finder at the U.S. Pharmacopeia Web site at www.usp.org.
