Today, physicians frequently prescribe medications for patients suffering from conditions that produce painful symptoms. The beneficial effects of alleviating pain have gained widespread acceptance within the medical community.
Many Americans purchase over-the-counter pain relief medications also.
While alleviating pain is important, patients need to pay close attention to a few key points concerning pain medications and correct dosages.
Follow Directions Precisely
Today, manufacturers have developed some extremely powerful prescription pain medications. Some of these drugs may become addictive if overused, leading to the need for more opiate and pain management programs. For this reason, some pain medications remain available on a prescription-basis only.
A patient should not deviate from a physician’s prescription instructions in taking these drugs. Never use more pain medication than prescribed. If you still experience pain as a result of your medical issue, let your doctor know about this problem promptly.
Pay attention to over-the-counter medication instructions, too. Taking too high a dosage of over-the-counter pain medications can produce serious health problems.
Doctor Shopping
Problems sometimes arise when patients visit multiple physicians and receive pain medication prescriptions from more than one of them during the same time period.
It remains vitally important to disclose all your medications to every physician providing treatment. This step helps prevent dangerous medication overdoses and drug interactions.
Some doctors even have forms their patients must fill out before they prescribe them opiate-based pain meds. These are basically contracts that state that future prescriptions or refills can be cancelled if additional prescriptions for similar medications are written by other doctors. This is all up to the prescribing doctor’s discretion.
Compounding Pharmacies
Licensed compounding pharmacies for years compounded drugs for animal use as prescribed by veterinarians. More recently, a new law permitted the compounding of specified human medications in some cases by registered pharmacies, as prescribed by physicians.
Some pharmacies, Potter’s House Apothecary, Inc compound customized medications to open up a whole new realm of possible solutions for patients. Having a reliable compounding pharmacy at your disposal can help manage health and symptoms.
Medications and Babies
Many prescription and over-the-counter pain medications will affect unborn babies. Pregnant women need to exercise extreme caution in taking these drugs. Always let your physician know if you suspect you may be expecting, especially if you use a prescription medication.
In the past, babies have sometimes been born addicted to pain medications, such as Codeine, because expecting mothers abused these controlled substances during pregnancy.
Side Effects
If you notice unusual symptoms or side effects after taking any medication, always notify your physician promptly. Your doctor may want to change your dosage or recommend a different medication in this situation.
By using common sense, you’ll avoid many potential pain medication problems. These useful substances play an important role in modern medicine by helping to alleviate patient discomfort.
Talk with your doctor regularly about how your meds are affecting you. Speak with your pharmacist as well, they have studied medications and in many cases, doctors use them as a resource for more specific questions about medications.