Definition of a prescription and the right to prescribe
A prescription is a physician's written order to a pharmacy to dispense a medication to a patient. Only a physician or paramedic has the right to issue a prescription. For emergency dispensing, the mark Cito! (Lat. "quickly") is placed in the upper right corner of the prescription form, obligating the pharmacy to prepare and dispense the drug as soon as possible.
Types of prescription forms
By order of the Russian Ministry of Health No. 110, five prescription form templates are approved:
- Special form — for prescribing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
- Form No. 148-1/u-88 — for medications subject to subject-quantitative accounting, including potent substances.
- Form No. 148-1/u-04(l) — for dispensing drugs to citizens entitled to receive free medications or at a discount.
- Form No. 148-1/u-06(l) — similar in purpose to the previous one (preferential dispensing).
- Form No. 107-1/u — the most commonly used general-purpose prescription form.
Features of the prescription form for narcotic drugs
The form for prescribing medications containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances has several strict features:
- Printed on pink paper with watermarks.
- Filled out exclusively in the physician's own hand, who certifies it with their signature.
- Only one name of a medicinal product is prescribed per form; if a second one is present, the prescription is considered invalid.
- The amount of the prescribed substance is indicated in words: in ampullis, in tabulettis, in capsulis.
- Validity period — 5 days from the date of issue; after dispensing, the prescription remains at the pharmacy for subject-quantitative accounting.
General rules of prescription writing
- All elements of the prescription must be written legibly to eliminate pharmacist errors when dispensing the drug.
- The use of both the international nonproprietary and trade (commercial) name of the medicinal product is permitted.
- The amount of the drug must correspond to the duration of treatment; exceeding it increases the risk of overdose and drug dependence.
- Treatment is recommended to begin with low doses, taking into account individual body reactions.
- For chronic diseases a prescription can be issued for a period of up to 1 month.
- The signatura (instructions for the patient) is written in Russian in plain and simple language.
Types of prescription writing: expanded and abbreviated
There are two types of prescriptions in Latin:
- Expanded — all components of the drug are listed with the dosages of each. Used in practical training at medical universities.
- Abbreviated — the finished name of the dosage form is indicated; used in the practical work of physicians.
Algorithm for writing a prescription in Latin
- The prescription begins with the word Recipe ("take"), abbreviated as Rp.:, followed by a colon.
- Next, the dosage form is indicated in the accusative case, singular or plural: Tabulettam, Capsulas, Suppositoria, etc. Abbreviations are acceptable: Tab., Caps., Supp., Amp.
- Then the name of the drug is given with a capital letter in the genitive case, singular: for example, Acetylcysteini.
- The dosage is indicated; the unit of measurement "gram" is implied but not written (for example, 0.2).
- On a new line follows the expression Da tales doses numero (abbr. D.t.d. N.) — "give such doses in number", after which the quantity is specified.
- The dispensing container is indicated: in ampullis, in tabulettis, in capsulis. The word «флаконы» is not written in the prescription.
- The last line contains Signa (abbr. S.) — "sign", after which the method of administration for the patient is indicated in Russian.
Example: Rp.: Acetylcysteini 0.2 D.t.d. N. 30 in tabulettis S. Take internally 1 tablet 2 times a day.
Key points
- A prescription is an official document; only a physician and a paramedic have the right to issue prescriptions.
- By order of the Ministry of Health No. 110, 5 prescription form templates with different purposes are approved.
- The form for narcotic and psychotropic substances is pink, with watermarks, valid for 5 days.
- The Latin part of the prescription includes Recipe, dosage form, drug name, dosage, D.t.d. N. and Signa.
- The name of the drug is written in the genitive case, and the dosage form in the accusative.
- The signatura is written in Russian and addressed to the patient.
- The quantity of the substance in a prescription for a narcotic drug is indicated in words.
- Medical universities teach the expanded prescription format as a baseline.