ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – More than 131 million Americans (or 66 percent of adults) take prescription medications.
But not everyone uses their medications correctly. Every year between seven thousand and nine thousand people die from medication errors.
If you’re like most Americans, pills are a part of life.
Ann Gwin says, “I now take up to four different medications for my blood pressure.”
Dr. Daniel Munoz, a cardiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explains, “Medications can be difficult to take and can be complicated, especially the more medications a person is prescribed.”
But if you use your medications incorrectly, you could be putting yourself in danger. In a recent report, more than nine million American adults said they had tried to reduce costs by skipping doses, taking fewer medications or delaying filling a prescription.
“The more medications someone is prescribed and they pick them up at the pharmacy, the higher their out-of-pocket costs will be,” says Dr. Muñoz.
However, not taking certain medications on schedule can be dangerous. For example, if you skip taking beta blockers, you can increase your blood pressure and put yourself at risk for a heart attack. Another mistake is to double the dose if you miss one. Many times, the missed dose should be skipped if it is almost time for the next dose. Another mistake is to stop taking medications. You should always take the medication for as long as your doctor tells you to.
Ann says, “I lay out my little boxes and then I line up the pills, the morning pills and the afternoon pills.”
Some medications, such as antidepressants, can cause harmful withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them cold turkey. Sharing medications with another person is also a mistake. Your medications are prescribed taking into account your particular height, weight, age, and medical condition. With medication errors to avoid.
According to UC Davis, every eight minutes, a child experiences a medication error at home. The most common mistakes are giving the wrong medication, giving medications to which the child is allergic, or taking the wrong dose.
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