How to read medical prescription, medical abbreviations, pharma abbreviations
Ever got confused by what your physician writes in the prescriptions list given to you? In this article you will know how to read the abbreviations in medical prescriptions and what are the meanings of the short forms used in a medical prescription.
It is a fact that most doctors' handwriting is incomprehensible! Honestly, most of the time it is like a spidery scrawl and I invariably ask the doctor to spell out the tablets/medicines written so that I would know whether the pharmacist is giving me the right one. Even more bewildering are the pharmaceutical abbreviations of the number of tablets / amount of dosage / number of times to be taken. It is literally Latin since all are the abbreviations are actually derived from Latin words!
My boss is a Dental Surgeon so I asked him for a list of commonly used pharmaceutical abbreviations which medical professionals write on the prescriptions list given to a patient. I have avoided giving the Latin derivatives as those may simply confuse you further!List of Common Pharmaceutical Abbreviations used in Medical Prescriptions
1. Rx: Prescription - this is the very first abbreviation which you will see right at the top of the list of prescriptions given to you.
(Rx. means "Take thou", so it literally means the Physician is telling you to take your medicine)
2. Sig.: label
3. tab.: tablet
4. caps.: capsule
5. gtt.: drops
6. d.: to be taken daily
7. p.o.: to be taken orally
8. b.i.d.: to be taken twice a day
9. t.d.s. (also could be written as t.i.d.): to be taken thrice a day
10. q.i.d.: to be taken four times a day
11. p.r.n.: to be taken as required
12. m.d.u.: to be used as directed
13. c.: with
7. ad.: up to
14. a.c.: before meals
15. p.c.: after meals
16. h.: hour
17. h.s.: to be taken at bedtime
18. q.h.: to be taken every hour
19. q.3h.: to be taken every 3 hours
20. n.r.: not to be taken again / do not repeat
21. stat.: to be taken immediately / right away
22. M.: to mix
23. Mist.: a mixture
24. Ft.: make
25. G.: gram
26. Gr.: a grain
27. Mitte: send
28. aq.: water
Note of caution: The author of this article is not a medical professional. Readers are advised to confirm from their own Physician the meanings of the abbreviated words given to them so that the wrong dosage & duration of dosage is not incorrectly taken.
Hoping you won't ever need this list!