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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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NetWellness provides the highest quality health information and education services created and evaluated by faculty of our partner universities.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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Pharmacy and Medications |
Lortab pain medication03/27/2006 01:54PM |
I would like to see a picture of the different Loratab pills. I was taking Lortab and the pill was Blue hard capsule shaped tablet (caplet). When I ask my Dr. she gave me Vicodin. Vicodin is also a caplet like Lortab, but it is white instead of blue.
Lortab, not Loratab, and Vicodin are brand names for combinations of hydrocodone, a narcotic pain reliever, and acetaminophen (paracetamol in many countries outside the US). They are prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. The combination of these two medicines is very popular, and various strengths are available from numerous manufacturers. In the US these products are schedule III controlled substances.
The availability of generic medicines can often be troubling to patients because their medicines may look different each time their prescription is refilled. Some generic drug manufacturers provide a list of the medicines they make along with imprint codes (numbers and letters on the dosage form) and pictures on their website. To find the website, try the company name followed by .com, or search for the site using an internet search engine. Aside from these websites we are not aware of any websites that provide free tablet identification with or without pictures.
A good source for help identifying prescribed medicines is the pharmacist where the prescription was filled. When generic equivalent medicines are available, they will be dispensed, and the generic product that the pharmacy stocks may change from month to month. Check your prescription at the time of purchase and ask your pharmacist if it looks different from what you expected.
Your local poison center, 1-800-222-1222 may provide tablet identification as a service at no charge. Identification will be based primarily on imprint codes. and tablets shape and color. They will not provide picture verification.
The Physician's Desk Reference contains a very limited group of product pictures. We found pictures for Vicodin, but not Lortab in the current edition. A service called Identidrug (http://www.identadrug.com), about $40 US yearly for a single user provides pictures for some tablets, but does a pretty good job identifying tablets and capsules based on their imprint code They also produce a tablet/capsule identifier in book form. It can be purchased at the website listed above. You might be able to get your local library to buy this book.
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Robert James Goetz, PharmD, DABAT Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Drug and Poison Information Center Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center University of Cincinnati |
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