Prescription Labels Often Misunderstood

(Page 2)

This type of detailed information can be included if a patient asks for it, either in the physician's office or at the pharmacy, Davis said.

But there's a more basic problem, Wolf said. "We may need more explicit instructions," he said. "The current system is very bad at providing information on prescription drugs. Instructions can vary not only by pharmacy but also by physician."

The committee probably will recommend "some regulatory oversight to standardize dosage, of a kind we've never had before," Wolf said.

The issue of "how we can confuse patients less" about the drugs they take is of growing importance, Wolf said. He estimated that perhaps 500,000 adverse events occur each year in this country because people misread their drug instruction.

More information

There's more on prescription drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov ).