Medicines with same name baffle patients and doctors. While two drugs can't have same name, the mistake was found when a 35-year-old psychiatric patient took his medicines to show it to the doctor. On checking the set of medicines, the doctor realised that his patient has got a high end antibiotic in place of the prescribed mood stabilizer.
The mistake was committed by the chemist as the drug had same name.
Dr Harish Shetty, senior psychiatrist practising in Vile Parle and Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital-Powai said, "I generally ask my patients to show me the medicines after they have purchased it to avoid mistakes. Luckily, my patient showed me the medicines and I was shocked to find a high end antibiotics with the same name. No wonder the chemist got it wrong. This is very dangerous."
The drug prescribed by Dr Shetty- Topaz (Topiramate) is usually given for epilepsy and bipolar disorder treatment and is a mood stabiliser while the topaz injection that Dr Shetty's patient got in return is a high end antibiotic used to treat patients admitted in intensive care units (ICU) for pneumonia, chest infection or urine infection etc.
This is not a stray case. While talking to chemist association, dna was told about another pair of drugs that share the same name, baffling patients and doctors.
The association said there is another pair of drugs in the market that have the same names and FDA should immediately take steps to prevent confusion and misuse of these medicines.
Prasad Danave, general secretary of retail and dispensing chemist association said, "One of our members just brought to our notice about two drugs with similar names - Zita. One is a vitamin and the other is given to control blood sugar in diabetes patients."
Danave further added that this is first time he has come across drugs with similar names and different uses and they have spread the word in their fraternity to be cautious. "We will inform FDA about the same. There should be proper system followed to avoid such mistakes whenever permission is given to any drug. In this case, we have informed the doctor too. Imagine a patient who is prescribed vitamins buying blood sugar control medicines and taking it!"
Reacting on the drugs with same name issue, Dr Khusrav Bajan, intensivist at PD Hinduja Hospital, said that there are drugs that can sound similar and look similar and every hospital maintains a directory to avoid confusion of these drugs but drugs with same spelling is not acceptable at all. "It is the drug administration's responsibility to ensure there is no drug with same spelling in the market," Dr Bhajan added.
A senior level officer of Maharashtra's Food and Drugs Administration (FDA)said, "We were informed about the Zita drugs. Since it is under licensing authority, we have informed them about the problem so that necessary action can be taken."
Talking about what must have led to the problem, the officer said that India lacks a centralised system while giving licenses to drugs. "Every state has their own agency that gives permission to licensing of drugs. The other state will not know the licenses given in the other states. It is only when the drugs come to market that the problem comes to light," said the officer.
Reacting to the incident, Dr Jagdish Prasad, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under whom DCGI falls said, "Local drug manufacturer takes permission from that state's government for license. If something like this has happened, the state health secretary should look into the matter and take appropriate action. We will look into the issue only if the state secretary brings it to our notice."
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