Managing Medications: Taking an Anticoagulant
3:47
Managing medications is one of the most common responsibilities of unpaid caregivers who are helping family members or friends. This task can be particularly challenging when the medication is considered high-risk. This episode of the Home Alone Alliance TM series on managing medications presents information about one frequently prescribed high-risk drug—warfarin. Warfarin is the generic name of the drug. Warfarin is often described, even by health care professionals, as a “blood thinner.” This is a common but inaccurate term. Warfarin does not thin blood; as an anticoagulant, it prevents blood from coagulating, that is, clotting. It is prescribed for people who have heart conditions like an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) or heart valve problems. It is also prescribed for people who have had blood clots in their legs or lungs to prevent a recurrence, and to people who are at risk of stroke.
Managing medications is one of the most common responsibilities of unpaid caregivers who are helping family members or friends. This task can be particularly challenging when the medication is considered high-risk. This episode of the Home Alone Alliance TM series on managing medications presents information about one frequently prescribed high-risk drug—warfarin. Warfarin is the generic name of the drug. Warfarin is often described, even by health care professionals, as a “blood thinner.” This is a common but inaccurate term. Warfarin does not thin blood; as an anticoagulant, it prevents blood from coagulating, that is, clotting. It is prescribed for people who have heart conditions like an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) or heart valve problems. It is also prescribed for people who have had blood clots in their legs or lungs to prevent a recurrence, and to people who are at risk of stroke.
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Medication Literacy Series: Drug Formularies
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A key benefit of health insurance is access to prescription drugs. At its core, a formulary is a list of prescription drugs covered by a plan. The list contains all the brand and generic drugs that a consumer would have access to as a plan enrollee.
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Medication Literacy Series: Medicine Management
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Many individuals must be able to reconcile multiple medications, coordinating the use of prescription medications with over-the-counter drugs. This set of behaviors, which guide appropriate medication use, is commonly known as medication management.
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Medication Literacy: Generic Medicines
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Generic drugs, the lower-cost versions of brand-name drugs that enter the market after a brand-name drug’s monopoly period ends, have come to assume a growing portion of the US drug market.
