Ability of practitioners to identify solid oral dosage tablets

Prescription stimulant brand name recognition among a national sample of 10- to 18-year-old youth

OBJECTIVE

The majority of prescription drugs, including prescription stimulants, are marketed using multiple brand names, doses, and formulations. There is limited research on the extent to which individuals correctly identify medication by brand name or packaging, but such identification is important for epidemiological studies especially among youth. Testing the ability of youth to identify medications was one aim of the National Monitoring of Prescription Stimulants Study, which focused on the prevalence of prescription stimulant use among youth.

METHODS

Using the entertainment venue intercept method, youth 10 to 18 years of age (n = 11,048) were recruited across 10 metropolitan areas throughout the United States, shown pictures of eight formulations of prescription stimulants, and asked to identify them by name, dosage, and formulation.

RESULTS

Overall, 27% of youth reported having seen one of the eight stimulant formulations and between 2% and 70% correctly identified name, dose, and formulation. Youths' reports of having seen and correctly identifying medication increased with age except for Daytrana^® . Specifically, while 2.8% of youth reported using Adderall^® in the past 30 days, only 71.4% correctly identified it.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide strong evidence of the need for more stringent methods for youth to report drug use.

Oral Solid Medication Appearance Should Play a Greater Role in Medication Error Prevention;Some Nurses Unaware of Proper Use of Sensorcaine Vials;Tall Man Letters in RxNorm;Tamiflu Concentration Change

These medication errors have occurred in health care facilities at least once. They will happen again—perhaps where you work. Through education and alertness of personnel and procedural safeguards, they can be avoided. You should consider publishing accounts of errors in your newsletters and/or presenting them at your inservice training programs.

Your assistance is required to continue this feature. The reports described here were received through the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Medication Errors Reporting Program. Any reports published by ISMP will be anonymous. Comments are also invited; the writers' names will be published if desired. ISMP may be contacted at the address shown below. Errors, close calls, or hazardous conditions may be reported directly to ISMP through the ISMP Web site ( www.ismp.org ), by calling 800-FAIL-SAFE, or via e-mail at ismpinfo@ismp.org . ISMP guarantees the confidentiality and security of the information received and respects reporters' wishes as to the level of detail included in publications.