Older Adults

Children

Special Groups

Antihistamines, Decongestants, and Cough Medicine

Pain Relievers

Alcohol and OTC Medicines

If you drink more than 1 alcoholic beverage per week and use NSAIDs, including aspirin, you may be at increased risk of GI bleeding. People who consume 3 or more alcoholic beverages each day should consult their physician before using any pain reliever. Acetaminophen is much less likely than NSAIDs to be associated with GI problems, including bleeding. But to minimize the risk of serious liver injury, you should never take more than the recommended daily dose (4 g per day).

The combination of OTC antihistamines and alcohol can increase drowsiness, especially in elderly people. In addition, alcohol makes the drowsiness, sedation and impaired motor skills associated with the cough suppressants dextromethorphan (in products such as Drixoral, Robitussin) and codeine worse.

Some groups of people may be particularly liable to have the side effects associated with OTC products. The sections below include tips for using OTC medicines in the following special populations: children, older adults, pregnant or breastfeeding women, other groups.

When used properly, OTC medications pose little risk to children. However, children metabolize drugs differently than adults. You should how OTC drugs will affect your children before you use them. Talk with your family doctor if you have questions about giving child OTC medicines.

- Acetaminophen is generally considered the treatment of choice for children’s pain relief.

- Children who are allergic to aspirin are likely to have problems using ibuprofen. Ibuprofen can make your child’s asthma worse, for example.

- Avoid using aspirin in children under the age of 18 because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome (a drug reaction that can lead to permanent brain injury).

- It’s very easy to accidentally give too much of a decongestant to a young child. Use these medicines with extreme care, if at all, and talk with your doctor first.

- Don’t use cough suppressants that contain codeine in young children. Talk to your doctor before using other cough medicines.

It can helpful for parents and other caregivers to keep track of the medicine a child is taking. One way to do that is with a medication log. Using a log can help avoid “double dosing” – giving too much medicine or giving it too often. It can also provide important information to your family doctor if there is a problem.

The elderly use a number of medications at the same time and therefore need to pay careful attention to drug-drug interactions between OTC medications and prescription medications. Older adults talk with their doctor their doctor about the medications they take and potential interactions with OTC medicines.

- there is a relatively high risk of kidney disease and GI bleeding in elderly patients who use NSAIDs. Discuss this risk with your family doctor.

- Pseudoephedrine can increase blood pressure and the pressure in your eye that can lead to glaucoma. It can also make existing blockages in the urinary tract worse. Pseudoephedrine interacts negatively with many other drugs such as beta-blockers, antidepressants, insulin, and some medications that treat low blood sugar.

- If you use a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a type of prescription antidepressant, or take any medication for a seizure disorder, you should avoid using pseudoephedrine.

- Pseudoephedrine can change the way these drugs work in your system. Some common MAOIs include Marplan (generic: isocarboxazid), Nardil (generic: phenelzine sulfate) and Parnate (generic: tranylcypromine sulfate).

- If you use a MAOI, you should not use dextromethorphan. Dextromethorphan interferes with the way MAOIs work.

Дата добавления: 2015-01-03