Ask your healthcare team, including your pharmacist:
- What is the name of the medicine and why am I taking it?
- What medical condition does this medicine treat?
- How do I know if the medicine is working?
- What type of side effects might I expect, if any? What should I do if I experience serious side effects?
- Will this drug cause problems if I am taking other prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines or supplements?
- What should I do if I want to stop taking this medicine? Is it safe to stop abruptly?
- Are there nonpharmaceutical alternatives or lifestyle interventions that might help my condition? What about complementary therapies?
- Is it safe for me to drive while taking this medication?
- Should I take the medicine with food or not? Is there anything I should not eat or drink when taking this medicine?
- What does “take as needed” mean?
- If I forget to take my medicine, what should I do?
- How will this medicine affect all the other drugs I am taking?To Ask Your Doctor About New Medicine
When you live with a chronic condition, it’s important to trust your healthcare team. But it’s also important to understand all aspects of your treatment plan and ask questions about anything you don’t understand.
By the same token, it’s important for you to be transparent with your healthcare team about any holistic therapies you’re using or contemplating, so that they can take these therapies into account when considering your overall treatment plan.
For example, if your pain medication’s side effects are bothering you, you and your primary care provider might decide to do a trial of massage therapy. If massage proves helpful, you might be able to decrease or eliminate your pain medication.
