Prescription drug

A prescription drug is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over the counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug. As a general rule, prescription drugs are those that treat a condition not necessarily requiring a doctor's care and have not been proven to meet safety standards required for over-the-counter drugs. Often a lower dosage of a drug will be approved for OTC use, while higher dosages will remain the province of a doctor's prescription; a notable case is ibuprofen, which has been widely available as an OTC pain killer since the mid-1980s but is still available in doses up to four times the OTC dose for use in cases of severe orthopedic pain.

In the United States, the Controlled Substances Act defines what requires a prescription. Prescription drugs are generally authorized by doctors, though nurse practitioners do an increasing amount of drug prescribing. It is generally required that a physician or a nurse practitioner write the prescription; nurses, emergency medical technicians, psychologists (but not psychiatrists, who are MDs), as examples, do not generally have the authority to prescribe drugs. Unlike many other countries, the United States does not have price controls for prescription drugs, and US drug prices are often percieved as inflated in comparison to other countries; therefore, most health insurance programs (generally partially or in full paid for by the patient's employer) have prescription payment plans where the patient pays only a small copayment and the pharmacy is reimbursed for the rest of the cost by the insurance company.

In England a patient visits a doctor (usually a general practitioner in the first instance) who is able to prescribe medicines. Each item on the prescription is liable to a prescription charge of £6.40 (as of April 2004). Those requiring regular prescriptions may make a saving by purchasing a pre-payment certificate which covers the cost of all prescriptions required for four months (at a cost of £33.40) or the year (at a cost of £91.80). The money is used to help fund the National Health Service. The devolved legislatures of Scotland and Wales were examining, in 2004, proposals to scrap the charge and provide free prescriptions for all.

Further reading

• Jerry Avorn, Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs, Random House (2004), hardcover, 448 pages, ISBN 0375414835

External links

• Partnership for a Drug-Free America study finds 1 in 5 teens abused prescription drugs on Wikinews, April 21, 2005
• Prescription Drug and Medicine Information