Monthly Archives: July 2015
It is really hard to narrow down a list of thousands of drugs to 5. Right or wrong, I did it. I based my subjective list upon frequency of use, highest risk for medication errors, significance when an error occurs, drug interactions, and risk of hospitalization. Here is my list of the Top 5 High Risk Medications […]
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Citalopram is a very commonly used antidepressant and is part of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) class. SSRI’s do have the potential to contribute to SIADH (basically a reduction in sodium levels in the body). The case: A 68 year old female is currently receiving the following medicaitons: omeprazole bumetanide docusate naproxen acetaminophen aspirin […]
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You are likely in a state of relief and excitement right now. By this time, you have recently had graduation, taken board exams (or will be very soon), and hopefully found a pharmacist position that you enjoy. You are probably eagerly anticipating receiving the financial rewards from all your hard work and student loans 🙂 […]
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Confusion is one of those vague symptoms in the elderly that can be due to nearly anything. Polypharmacy is hard to ignore and here I breakdown a medication list of a 79 year old female with increasing confusion: Enalapril 5 mg daily Aspirin 325 mg daily Simvastatin 10 mg daily Omeprazole 20 mg daily Naproxen 500 […]
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I’ve seen numerous mistakes involving these two pain medications that come in a patch formulation. Between drug diversion (fentanyl – Duragesic), inappropriate time intervals for changing (lidocaine – Lidoderm), as needed use (fentanyl), and lost patches (both), there are plenty of easy mistakes and misconceptions about these two pain patches that I’ve seen folks from […]
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