How to ensure that the medicines that you are prescribed are safe? Here is a guide
- Look for suffixes like OS, TZ, DS or any other. This could mean this is a combination medicine. If it is so, ask your doctor. Combinations are not always undesirable. But there has to be a real good justification for it. Combination drugs are prescribed in conditions like tuberculosis where the number of pills a patient has to take, comes down.
- If you are on a regular medication, and your doctor tells you to change it, find out why ask if the new medicine is safe. If any medicine is prescribed to you, ask the doctor what it does and how it works. If he or she is too arrogant to say so, then it is not worth going to that doctor. Asking questions and clearing your doubts is better than going home, unsure of whether you have to really take this medicine.
- When you buy the medicine from the chemist, check the label properly. See if there are any warnings or any cautionary notes printed on it. If there is it is best to check with your doctor, express your fear and ask for an alternative.
- Always ensure you buy only what has been prescribed by the doctor. Be careful to tally the spelling on the prescription and the medicine label. Remember a change in a letter here or there, could be very dangerous
