Some people rely on prescription drugs everyday, but do they really know about what they're putting in their mouths? Maybe not. Many clients that I worked with, when asked by their doctors, only know how many pills they're taking everyday or how many times each day. They hardly know what those pills are for and why should they take them. The most common answer from them is: because the doctor prescripts this to me, so I've to take it.
I read an article in the NPR news on this topic and it says, even though each prescription drug comes with a flyer about what it's called, how to take it and what problems might arise (common side effects). However, these small font size, pages long and filled with medical jargon fliers aren't doing any good to the patients, because they simply do not understand or ignored it.
FDA said this is a complicated issue but they will continue to work with all interested parties to make patient information more user-friendly. While the new regulation is not happening in the near future, patients should be more proactive, ask your doctor or pharmacist! Don't wait till it gets worse, don't wait till the next appointment, ask when you have a doubt about what you're taking! full story
處方藥說明書，病人看得懂嗎？
不少人長期依賴處方藥控制病情，而每種處方藥都會附上說明書，包括藥名、食（使）用方法、 可能出現的症狀／副作用等。然而這些字體小、使用眾多專有名詞的說明書，實在沒有多少人看得懂，甚至說會注意到它的存在。
然而，既然吃藥的人是你，在把這些藥物放入自己口中之際，至少應該知道到底是治療什麼病的吧？事實上卻是有不少病人，不知道。他們只管這是醫生開的藥，所以就遵照指示吃藥，準沒錯啦。聽醫生的話沒錯，但是也得搞清楚自己在吃什麼，也只有這樣，在出現狀況，乃至更嚴重的副作用時，醫生才能幫你，包括換個藥，或都調整劑量。
當然，藥廠也有責任去把這些說明書「寫白一點」，讓一般人也能夠看明白，否則一堆的醫藥專有名詞，真的有看沒有懂啦。政府有意去制定新法，規範處方藥說明書的格式，但是這當中也涉及到複雜的程序和過程，在新法未出爐前，病人要更積極去了解自己用的各種處方藥，有疑問就要馬上向醫生或藥劑師提出，否則吃虧的是自己呀！
No comments:
Post a Comment