It’s a Mixed Bag
Interestingly enough, last week my husband witnessed someone getting beaten and robbed in broad daylight while getting our car serviced. Without giving it a second thought, he sprang into action and tackled the guy. He was able to hold the guy down long enough until police arrived and arrested the guy. He was hurt as he had also taken a beating (to a lesser degree) and had some contusions to his head and hand. I urged him to go to see a doctor at Urgent Care and after he checked out ok, he was given a couple new scripts for medications (Diclofenac Sodium & Cyclobenzaprine) to help alleviate the swelling and pain. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see how much he knew about his meds.
With my trusty med app in hand I asked him 5 simple questions about each drug: What is the name of the drug? What is it for? When do you take it? How do you take it? And lastly, is there anything that you need to be aware of while taking the drug? I have to admit, I was pretty impressed by how much information he had retained from his meeting with the pharmacist. He was able to answer my questions and tell me that he also checked to make sure that there were no drug interactions with his daily beta blocker. I was able to help him identify some OTC NSAIDs that he would want to steer clear from while taking Diclofenac sodium. He did ask why he needed to take it with food and I explained the potential adverse effects of NSAID use.
But it seems to be a mixed bag when it comes to med knowledge. Over the weekend, I also asked some coworkers about some of the common OTC medications that they take such as Advil, Tylenol, and Alleve and I was surprised to find that the majority of the group could not tell me how they were alike or different from one another. Secondly, they didn’t really get the gist of how hard NSAIDs are can be on your stomach, as they all said that they usually take them on an empty stomach. I explained to them the importance of taking them with food and also which drugs are NSAIDs so that they could better understanding how easy it is to overdose on medications such as Aspirin, Advil and Alleve.
