Self-Medicating: Do You Know How Everything Works Together?
Most of us with fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) take several medications every day. Ideally, your doctor and pharmacist should know enough about them to make sure you're not taking prescription drugs that can have bad interactions.
Of course, the ideal isn't always the reality. And who's looking out for you when you take over-the-counter (OTC) medications?
Here's a link to add to your favorites and check with anytime you add something to your drug regimen, either long-term or just for the day: About.com's Drugs A-Z. You can search for any prescription or OTC drug on the market (in the U.S.), get a list of side effects, and also input other medications to check for negative interactions. And the "search" bar has a nice function - as you type, it gives you a list of drug names to chose from, which can be a big help if you're not the world's best speller (and anyone can make a mistake with names like 'cyclobenzaprine.') It also contains a lot of common dietary supplements.
I use this tool a lot, and I find out all kinds of new information. For example, one night I was taking Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine) and Vicodin (hydrocodone-acetaminophen) and wanted to know if I could take an OTC sleep aid - Unisom (doxylemine) - because Vicodin keeps me awake. Turns out, Unisom is also an antihistamine, which made me wonder if it was OK to take it with the Zyrtec (cetirizine) I'm on. Turns out, it's not. As someone who's highly sensitive to medications, I need to be especially careful and I was really glad I'd found out about that interaction.
I hope you'll use this tool to keep yourself from making dangerous drug errors. We've got enough health problems already, we don't need to manufacture any new ones!
If you use Drugs A-Z, I'd love to hear what you find! Post a comment here or in About.com's Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome forum.
Suggested Reading
- Drugs for Treating Fibromyalgia
- Drugs for Treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Vitamins & Supplements for Treating Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Comments
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s so very important. My drug store is great about informing me of interactions. I have one doc. who likes to prescribe things and take risks (he’s of the older era). He gave me Effexor while taking Ultram…which is a no no. I was just short of having seizures. My pharmacist had warned me, but I thought I could completely trust the doc. Learning about what you take and the interactions that may arise is the best thing to do for yourself.