Dr Best Pharmacy: Why to Take Medicine on Time?

According to FDA, in India, 50% of the time medication is not taken as prescribed by the doctor or instructed by a pharmacist, due to which people do not achieve adequate treatment response and the disease condition gets worse, need for hospitalization prevails and even death occurs. Despite the hospitals and pharmacy nearby, individuals skip their doses or do not take them on time.

As per FDA, medication adherence (or sticking to your medication routine) means taking your medications in the adequately prescribed manner (i.e. the right dose, at the right time, in the right way).

Have you ever thought why is taking medicine on time important?

Let’s enlighten you all!

From a survey by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was found that the habit of skipping medication causes 30 to 50% failure of treatment of chronic disease and thus lead to 125,000 deaths per year.
Taking medicines as per the prescription of the doctor is very important to control chronic disease conditions, cure temporary conditions as well as for long term health and well-being, is the valuable advice by Dr Best Pharmacy.
First of all, let’s know the reasons why individuals do not take their medications as per prescription.

1. Misunderstanding regarding the instructions or direction: Sometimes people get confused in the dosing time interval, for example, taking medication twice a day and taking 2 tablets once a day both these terms look similar, but there is a considerable difference between them. A small misunderstanding can cause harm to the body such as Ibuprofen, a NSAIDs for pain and fever; its excessive dosing can lead to severe side effects like gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney failure.

2. Unwanted and unpleasant side effects: Along with therapeutic benefits, every drug has certain side effects, which may be the one reason for skipping medication. These unpleasant side effects can discourage people from continuing medicines if they experience any side effects from your daily medication, it’s better to inform your doctor immediately, instead of discontinuing or skipping the dose.

3. Forgetfulness: According to the CDC, the majority of people over the age of 60 or 65 generally take more than 4 to 5 medications daily. The dosing time interval of these medications is usually different to prevent possible interactions. In this case, it may be a difficult task for the person to remember the time of taking medications and hence leads to dose skipping.

4. Cost: Cost can be a prime factor behind the discontinuation of medication or dose skipping. Due to the higher cost of medications, patients decide to take less dose than prescribed dose so that their prescription last longer. Thus Dr Best Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd has come forward with the mission to provide quality medicines with 80% discount so that everyone should get the treatment. Their online pharmacy 24 hours is serving individuals with huge discounts with online medicine offers.

5. Other reasons behind missed dosing are complex drug regimen, inadequate access to pharmacy, lack of knowledge regarding the disease, fear of getting dependence (in case of opioid and antidepressant medicines) lack of motivation and poor social and family support.

6. Non-compliance with treatment: This is one of the most common reasons for skipping medications, usually with antibiotic use. As by taking two or three doses person may feel better and leaves the rest of the medicine course, due to the misconception. This is completely wrong practice, it can lead to antibiotic resistance i.e., in near future that person’s infection may not be cured with the same antibi

It is essential to know what medicines you are taking and how they are helping your body.

Because the foremost person to know what you are taking is you only!

So let’s discuss, what would happen if you skip the dose of your medication?

Disadvantages of dose skipping
Skipping dose or medication non-adherence can cause several healthcare issues. As per the report of National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), approx 20-50% of the patient fail to take their medication on time, or they forget entirely, and these missed doses results in around 125,000 death each year. Disadvantages of dose skipping are:

1. You may miss the best moments: In the case of arthritis, treatment with pain killer is best suited when you treat your symptoms in the initial state. If you skip the dose, your pain flare-ups, and it might be challenging to get relief from that pain.

2. Your treatment might fall: While going ahead with antibiotics, if you don’t finish the complete dose of your medicaments, your infections might last for a longer period or even come back. Incomplete treatment with antibiotics may also develop resistance in your body towards antibiotics. So it is better to finish all your prescribed medicines even if you feel better.

3. You might feel some “withdrawal” symptoms: Medicaments like antidepressants showed their action by triggering some chemical changes in the brain. If you skip a single dose or quit entirely, it may cause withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, headache, tiredness, mood changes and sleep problem.

4. Your disease might be difficult to treat: Skipping a single dose of antiviral drugs during HIV treatment, may allow virus strain to develop resistance towards the antiviral medicines and thus it’s difficult to control the infections.

5. You might face severe complications: A missed dose of the medicament can worsen your disease conditions. For example, if you skip your blood pressure pills, it could raise the chances of strokes, heart attacks and kidney failure and other severe complication. Another example is skipping the dose during asthma treatment often results in hospitalization.

Role of the pharmacist:

A pharmacist is a professional with expertise in medications. They serve an essential part in

– Patient counselling regarding the proper use of drugs along with their possible side effects and interactions.

– Motivating the patients on the importance of patient adherence towards medicaments (taking medicine on time)

– Instruct the patient as per prescription.

Concluding, medication adherence (sticking to your medication routine) as per prescription is vital for controlling chronic as well as temporary disease conditions and reduces the chances of possible side effects, interaction and withdrawal effects.