Elderly medication: Do not tamper with the outer packaging of medicines

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Not long ago, 62-year-old Chen had an old comrade who had not seen him for many years. He was very happy after they met. After a few drinks, Chen suddenly felt chest tightness and a slight pain in his chest, so he asked his wife to take out a spare. Nitroglycerin is taken under the tongue. The strange thing is that his condition did not improve as usual after taking the medicine, and his family did not dare to delay and immediately sent him to a nearby hospital. The doctor diagnosed angina pectoris, and after treatment, Chen Lao turned from danger to peace.

After recovering, Chen Lao was very puzzled. As long as he has angina, taking a tablet of nitroglycerin under the tongue will quickly relieve his condition. Why is it not working this time? So he took the spare nitroglycerin at home to consult a doctor. After checking, the doctor found that the pills were not in a brown sealed medicine bottle, but in a white paper bag with nitroglycerin tablets written in black pen on the outside of the bag. Old Chen explained that in order to facilitate carrying, he disassembled a whole bottle of nitroglycerin tablets and placed them next to the pillows, in the personal pockets and in the outing bag. After listening, the doctor finally found the cause of the failure of the nitroglycerin tablets. All this was caused by the white paper bag containing the nitroglycerin.

The doctor explained that nitroglycerin tablets need to be shaded, sealed and stored in a cool place. The white paper bag cannot be shading and sealed, and it has a strong adsorption effect on nitroglycerin tablets, which greatly reduces the effective concentration of the drug and causes the nitroglycerin tablets to fail; in addition; In the hot and humid season, medicines are easily damp and deteriorate, which can also cause medicines to volatilize, reduce their concentration or lose their efficacy. The doctor suggested that after the medicines are used according to the quantity, they should be put back into the original packaging as much as possible, and the medicines should be placed in a closed state. Avoid using paper bags, cartons, plastic bags and other packaging materials that are not protected from light and moisture.

In addition, in order to save space when replenishing new medicines in their own small medicine boxes, many families often remove the drug insert sheets and outer packaging and throw them away. This is not advisable. The outer packaging of medicines is not only the coat that wraps the medicines. Many information on the use of medicines, such as the usage, dosage, indications and contraindications of the medicines, and even the shelf life, etc., must rely on the instructions and the outer packaging. If they are thrown away, it is easy to make mistakes. Adverse reactions occur when the service or the medicine expires.

If you have an elderly person in your family, remember to keep the outer packaging and instructions for the reserved medicines. Don’t change the medicine to another packaging for convenience, so as to avoid reduced efficacy, failure or misuse, which may lead to serious consequences.


Post time: Aug-20-2021