Though much of what’s written on over-the-counter drug labels can seem like a different language, educating oneself on what it means is just a click away.
According to ProPublica, nearly 78,000 people are admitted to emergency rooms each year from Tylenol toxicity, and about 30 percent of those patients accidentally overdose on the drug. This is a startlingly high figure, and with proper education, about 23,400 of those emergency room visits could be prevented each year. Here’s a crash course on what you might find between the lines of your OTC medication labels.
Generic vs. brand name
Most of us know that generic drugs and their brand name counterparts have the same clinical efficacy. One example of this is the generic drug ibuprofen.
You’ll find ibuprofen sold under brand names Advil, Brufen, Motrin and Nurofen all over the world. Typically, the generic version of a drug is released after the brand name drug’s patents and exclusivities expire. However, according to the Food and Drug Administration, generic drugs typically cost less than the brand name because the clinical trials required for brand-name FDA approval do not need to be run again, and because the generic drug introduces competition to the brand name, driving prices down.
The FDA makes it easy. The generic and brand name medicines are the same in “dosage, safety, effectiveness, strength, stability and quality, as well as in the way it is taken and should be used,” according to the FDA.
Active vs. inactive ingredient
On each label’s drug facts, you’ll find two sections for ingredients. The top section includes active ingredients, the bottom section inactive. The active ingredients are the only pharmacological components of the drug, which means ibuprofen, Advil and Motrin all have the same active ingredient: ibuprofen.
“An active ingredient is any component of a drug product intended to furnish pharmacological activity or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease, or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals,” per the FDA’s website.
To put it in the most obvious terms, the inactive ingredient is everything the active ingredient is not. This might include dyes for color, preservatives, flavoring agents and binding agents. In Advil Liqui-Gels, you’ll find inactive ingredients such as Fd&C green No. 3, pharmaceutical ink, polyethylene glycol and potassium hydroxide. Understandably, these ingredients can look intimidating, but each ingredient is FDA-approved. Information on them is chiefly pertinent to those with allergies.
How strong is too strong?
About 25,000 people accidentally overdose on a nearly ubiquitous drug each year, according to ProPublica. Scarier, 1,567 people died from a Tylenol overdose between 2001 and 2010.
Depending on the drug, there are restrictions when it comes to how many pills, how strong the dosage and how much you should take within a day. These can be found on the FDA website or the back of the bottle. It’s important to remember that the strength in each pill formation or drug type could change from drug to drug, so it’s vital to check.
Which brands and companies should I trust?
If a drug is approved by the FDA, you can be confident it has been rigorously vetted. This means lab, animal and human clinical testing must occur, and data must be submitted and reviewed by the FDA before the item appears on a shelf. That means pharmacies are A-OK, but buying medication online carries substantial risk.
The FDA notes many cases of customers purchasing a drug online, only to be sent something neither FDA-approved nor safe. For more information on buying medications online and how to trust online suppliers, the FDA’s BeSafeRx: Know Your Online Pharmacy has many useful resources.
What does the expiration date mean?
A 2012 article in Archives of Internal Medicine focused on just this question. As it turns out, many OTC medications don’t become harmful following the expiration date. After the date passes, the medications may not be 100 percent effective. For the responsible user of OTC medicines who closely follows label directions, expiration dates only mean the drug may not be quite as effective as it was the day it was bought.
However, if you’re ever concerned that an OTC drug has been tampered with or is no longer effective or safe, the best thing to do is throw it away.
David Allen is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
