Prescription abbreviations

Centuries ago, all the recipes were written in Latin. Currently, only a section of the recipe (instructions to take the medicine) uses abbreviations in Latin. Unless you have A medical background, these abbreviations, limitation periods may be difficult to understand.

What do the abbreviations of limitation?

Reply: Once Latin served a more important role in prescriptions when they were written for the first time in the 1400s. Latina spread by Roman soldiers and merchants, was the main language of Western Europe for hundreds of years. It was unlikely to change, because it was a language "dead", and was unlikely to be misunderstood, because it was exactly in its meaning.

Patients who did not know Latin probably doesn't have a clue what they were taking.

Today, the only part of the prescription Latin where is still appears in the instructions to take the medicine. This usage became a sort of shorthand between medical doctors and pharmacists.

Some of these short terms have the potential to cause errors of medication because they look so similar in manuscript, therefore its use is slowly declining.

Where does the "Rx" for the "recipe"? Its origins are given variously as an abbreviation of the Latin word "recipe," which means "take", or as a representation of the astrological sign of Jupiter. This sign was placed in the former requirements to invoke that divinity blessing of medicine to help the person get well.

More recently, the cross, which sometimes appears at the end of the "R" has been explained as a replacement.

In your recipe, your doctor may have written these abbreviations:

Unless you have A medical background, this bunch of letters is probably unintelligible. In this example, the abbreviations of prescription pharmaceutical, instruct "label the container for the patient's medication with the following instructions: take one tablet by mouth 4 times per day, after meals and at bedtime."

Some of the common Latin prescription abbreviations include:

AC (ante cibum) means "before meals" Lance (bis in die) means "twice daily" gt (gutta) means "drop" hs (hora somni) means "at bedtime" o.d. (oculus dexter) means "right eye" So (oculus sinister) meaning "left eye" po (per os) means "by mouth" pc (post cibum) means "after meals" prn (pro re nata) means "as needed" q 3:0 (quaque time 3) means "every 3:0" qd (quaque die) means "every day" qid (quater in die) means "4 times per day" SIG (signa) means "write" tid (ter in die) means "3 times per day" prescription and other medical abbreviations
A comprehensive listing and explanation of frequently used prescription and other medical abbreviations, since the Department of pharmaceutical sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

While terms in Latin are still commonly seen on prescriptions, some doctors are gradually retire old and use those terms better clarify your drug orders in plain language.

Since readability helps to avoid mix-ups of medication, it was recommended that prescribers to write instructions rather than using abbreviations more ambiguous. (For example, write "daily" rather than "qd," the Latin term abbreviated to "every day," which could be interpreted as "qid" meaning "4 times per day", or "od" meaning "right eye.")

If the instructions written on a prescription are clear or confusing, please ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain. Do not take your medicine without fully understanding the instructions prescribed. Arthritis drug MedicationsArthritis: what are my options?Test your knowledge: Arthritis Medications

Source: making it easier to read recipes, by Dixie Farley, FDA Consumer Magazine, July-August 1995