Mixing up drug names because they resemble in look or sound is among the most common types of medical mistakes now-a-days & it can be deadly dangerous. For example the generic drug ‘Clomdine’ for high blood pressure, double check that you did not leave the drug store with ‘Klonopin’ for seizures, or the gout. medicine ‘Colchicine’. This trio-is among the most general type of mistakes people may do. Though by now new efforts are on to stem the confusion, be aware to choose the right medicine with all details.
Now patients must be aware of the this deadly fact to be free from high risk to pick-up the right medicine. As estimated by the medical experts, nearly 1,500 commonly used drugs have names so similar to at least one or other medicine, that they have already caused mix ups. US pharmacopeia, which helps set drug standards and promote patient safety is currently working hard to wipe out the confusion. Recently they opened a web-based tool to let consumers and doctors easily check if they are using or prescribing any of these error-prone drugs.
The most important tip to choose the right medicine is to spell or pronounce the name of the medicine properly if there is confusion. If there is still confusion, access to website- http:///www.usp.org. and it is easy to see hoe mistakes can happen more often and then pick-up the right medicine. This is more of a patient-oriented website, a partnership of the non-profit Institute for safe medication practices and online health services iguard.org, that will send users email alerts about drug name confusion too.
Food & Drug Association of America is also currently preparing a pilot programme that would shift more responsibility to manufacturers to guard against this type of confusion. The goal is to spell out how to better test for mix-ups before companies seek approval to sell their products. In Indian context till yet, there is no legislation for this. The worry in Indian condition is – many new drugs are approved each year, which may worsen the problem still. Hence, the utmost need of the hour is to work vigorously in this direction on urgent basis to wipe out the confusion, otherwise this is going to add its share for cause of unnatural deaths.