Many adults take prescription drugs, and usage rates are continually increasing. With approximately 1.3 million emergency department visits in the U.S. caused by adverse drug events each year, patient education is becoming increasingly important.
All prescription drugs come with instructions on how to safely and effectively use them. Depending on the medication, there may be several types of information included: the patient package insert, medication guide and instructions for use. One or more of these documents could be folded up in the box or attached as a printed page provided by your pharmacist.
I am a scientist who studies how drugs and other chemicals affect human health. While they may look intimidating, package inserts – and particularly the prescribing information – can help patients better understand the science inside the pill bottle and blister pack, among others.
What can I learn from package inserts?
An often overlooked part of the package insert is the prescribing information. Though written primarily for health care professionals, it contains a wealth of information regarding the ways in which the medication interacts with the body.
If the prescribing information was not included with your prescription, you can often find a copy on the National Institutes of Health’s DailyMed website or other drug information websites.
As an example, let’s consider one of the most widely prescribed medications in the U.S., atorvastatin (Lipitor). Among other effects, it reduces elevated levels of cholesterol overall as well as levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol – LDL, or “bad” cholesterol.
Reading the insert can answer a few important questions about the drug. If you’d like to follow along, a copy of the prescription information for Lipitor can be found here.
Atorvastatin (Lipitor) is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the U.S.
Tim Boyle/Getty Images
How does the drug work?
To answer this question, you can refer to the “Mechanism of Action” and “Pharmacodynamics” subsections of the prescription insert.
The mechanism of action and pharmacodynamics are related concepts. The mechanism of action describes the chemical and molecular interactions that cause a drug’s therapeutic or toxic effects. Pharmacodynamics refers to “what the drug does to the body,” which includes the mechanism of action as well as how other factors like drug concentration influences its effects.
Often the mechanism of action of a drug is related to how it interacts with cell receptors and enzymes involved in mediating specific signals and biochemical reactions in the body.
In the case of Lipitor, the prescribing information tells us three important things about how the drug works. First, the liver is the primary site that produces cholesterol in the body and the area the drug is meant to target. Second, the drug works by inhibiting an enzyme involved in cholesterol…
