Drugs.Com's Free Pill Identification Wizard: Accurate Answers & Information About Prescription and Over the Counter Pills

How many times have you found a pill or two in the bottom of your purse or in an unlabeled bottle and wondered exactly what they were? Maybe you are the parent of a teen that found some loose pills in their pockets when you were getting ready to do laundry. Whatever the case, there is a website that you can access for free that will allow you to get information on it. It only takes a few seconds to enter the information at Drugs.com and so far all of the pills that I have entered have had results. The database has generic pills as well so it can provide accurate results regardless of the manufacturer. It contains over the counter, prescribed and some street drugs. It also provides results for pills and capsules. There are times when you will get a list of results with images in case there are multiple results from your search.

The site is: Drugs.com (www.drugs.com/imprints.php)

Your first entry is the marking on it. This can be letters, numbers or a combination of letters and numbers. I found a white pill on the floor and was clueless as to what it was. I wanted to know exactly what it was in case it was something that could be dangerous so I could check around for more or to see if anyone (or the pets) ingested them. The imprint on it was L484 so I entered that and then the color (white) and finally the shape (capsule). This is the result information it gave me:

Acetaminophen
Strength(s)
500mg
Imprint(s)
L484

I did another search on the genetic Ibuprofen capsules I had on my desk; they are from a local grocery store and I didn't think that there would be any results but it did come up with this information:

Ibuprofen
Strength(s)
200 mg
Imprint(s)
I-2
Manufacturer / Distributor
Perrigo

You can opt to add the shape to your search. Some of the shapes include round, egg, heart, rectangle, three through eight sided shapes, barrel, elliptical and others. If you have something that is oval but it isn't a capsule, that's fine, it is referring to the shape of the pill not the type of outer coating. Adding the shape is optional but it can help with results. It also gives you some of the most searched for numbers and names so that can help save you some time if you are looking for something that is amongst the popular search strings.

If you think that there is even the slightest chance that someone has taken too many pills don't waste time looking in the database, call emergency services (9-1-1) immediately. If you call your poison control center they will dispatch emergency services while they are getting information from you. The database can be accessed by anyone but it shouldn't be used in the instance of an overdose or if a child has gotten into medication.

Some street drugs are not in the database; they might be new, have different numbers or designs to them or could be limited to a certain area of the country. If you come across anything that you can't find in this database you can go to your local pharmacy and ask them for assistance. Going to the police deparetmnet is an option but if it is something along the lines of Ecstasy (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) you may have to do some explaining as to where you found it or came across it.

This website had helped me more than a few times and I wanted to pass it along to everyone that may need it at some point in time.