Don't Let a Lookalike, Sound Alike Drug Kill You or a Loved One

Linda Sanders, 62, thought she was taking a prescription pain killer. Instead, she was taking an anti-seizure drug. According to her loved ones, two days after taking Lamictal, an anti-epilepsy drug at a dose higher than a doctor would recommend, instead of the pain killer, Lyrica, she thought she was taking, Sanders, a grandmother, shot herself in the head, fatally wounding herself. She was the victim of taking a medicine with a name that sounds like another medication, and there are many Americans just like Linda Sanders.

After her mother died, Shelly Sanders, 42, learned that people taking Lamictal often commit suicide. Linda Sanders was one of five million people every year who are the victims of receiving medication that might look like or have a name that sounds like the medicine they are supposed to receive. Often the result is injury or death. Could you receive the wrong medication? What could be the consequences if you do? There are things you can do to protect yourself. You need to know how.

"Lyrica and Lamictal are very different drugs," said Shelly Sanders, 42, of Atlanta, said on the website, www.msnbc.com. "This should not have happened."

Of the five million people who take the wrong medications every year that look like or have a similar sounding name to the kind they do want, 7,000 people die annually, according to the Institute of Medicine. Many others are injured.

Among the medicines that are often confused are: the blood pressure medicine Toprol-XL and the migraine drug Topamax, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, with the antihistamine Zyrtec, the new heartburn drug Kapidex, with the prostate cancer drug Casodex. International drug maker Takeda recently agreed to change the name of Kapidex after some women received a cancer drug intended only for men.

Because of the problem of drugs that look alike or have names that sound alike other drugs, in November of 2009 the Food and Drug Administration started a "Safe Use Initiative" to help stop such errors. There were more than 3.9 billion prescriptions in 2009, so it is no wonder such mistakes are prevalent. Even though the drug dispensing rate may only be 1.7%, that still translates into 66 million mistakes a year. Of the 66 million mistakes, experts say 325,000 could cause serious consequences. That may be a small percentage, but that is not comforting to those affected.

If you want to avoid having a look alike sound like drug from possibly injuring or killing you or your loved one, there are simple things to do, according to a Consumer Reports blog:

Whenever your doctor prescribes any medication for you make sure he does more than write out a prescription. Have him print the name and the dosage for you. Ask him to spell it back aloud to you. Have him make a note of the generic equivalent, if it's a brand name drug.

Make sure the doctor states the purpose of the medication on the prescription form he writes for the pharmacist. The pharmacist should then be less likely to make a mistake.

Check the label on the prescription before you leave the pharmacy. Is the name the same as the printed name, which the doctor also spelled verbally for you? Ask the pharmacist to be sure you have the right prescription, if your medicine does not look like it usually does.

If you are diligent, you should be able to avoid serious consequences, even if you are one of the small percentage of people who are the victim of receiving the wrong medication from a pharmacist.

Citations:

Look-alike, sound-alike drugs trigger dangers By JoNel Aleccia, Msnbc.msn.com Look-alike, sound-alike drugs trigger dangers By JoNel Aleccia Look-alike, sound-alike drugs trigger dangers By JoNel Aleccia

Look-Alike, Sound-Alike Drugs Trigger Dangers, no author listed, Witn.com

Avoid sound-alike drug errors-ask your doctor to spell it, no author listed, Blog.consumerreports.com