The Institute for Safe
Medication Practices recently
described several cases where
the brand name of one drug was
mistaken for the generic name
of another. Salagen, a brand
name for pilocarpine, is used
to treat the dry mouth
symptoms caused by Sjogren's
syndrome or radiation therapy.
Selegiline is an MAO-inhibitor
used to tr
more

The Institute for Safe
Medication Practices recently
described several cases where
the brand name of one drug was
mistaken for the generic name
of another. Salagen, a brand
name for pilocarpine, is used
to treat the dry mouth
symptoms caused by Sjogren's
syndrome or radiation therapy.
Selegiline is an MAO-inhibitor
used to treat Parkinson's
disease. Both drugs are
available in 5 mg tablets.

In the first case, the mix-up
occurred because the names
sounded alike. A home health
nurse received a telephone
order from a dentist for an
elderly patient with problems
related to a dry mouth. The
dentist prescribed Salagen 5
mg, but the nurse misheard the
order and called the pharmacy
to request selegiline 5 mg.
About 2 weeks later, another
pharmacist was processing a
prescription for a fentanyl
patch for the same patient
when the pharmacy computer
system signaled an alert about
a drug interaction between
fentanyl and selegiline. When
the pharmacist contacted the
prescriber, he discovered the
error.

In the second case, a
pharmacist reported that the
similar spelling of the two
drug names led him to enter
'selegiline' into the computer
instead of 'Salagen'. The
error was recognized only
after the patient complained
that the medication was not
helping his dry mouth, and
this caused the pharmacist to
check the patient's profile.

In order to minimize these
kinds of mix-ups, ISMP says to
list both the brand and
generic names on
prescriptions. And patients
who use these drugs regularly
should be alerted to report
any change in the appearance
of their medications.

Category News & Politics

Tags Drug, Confusion, Salagen, Selegiline, Pilocarpine, Sjogren's, Syndrome, Radiation, Therapy, FDA, MAO-inhibitor, Parkinson's, Disease