Advertisement

Changing the names of drugs to reflect their effects

Patients often get confused when their drug name doesn't reflect their symptoms, so psychiatric organizations so a name change is needed.

By Thor Benson
Medicine. (Shutterstock/UPI/Poznyakov)
Medicine. (Shutterstock/UPI/Poznyakov)

BERLIN, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- According to many top psychiatric organizations, patients can be confused by the names of psychiatric drugs prescribed to them.

Instead of naming a drugs based on their primary purpose, they argue, drugs should be named for their primary components..

Advertisement

"As an example the drug fluoxetine (also known as Prozac, etc.) is currently classified as an antidepressant, but is also used for bulimia and other indications. Obviously, suffering from bulimia and being given an antidepressant is potentially confusing," Professor Josef Zohar of Israel said in a statement. He also notes that antipsychotics are often used to treat depression.

The concepts for the new way of referring to drugs will be presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Berlin.

Zohar asserts drugs can be classified by four components:

1. Describing the pharmacological target and mode of action

2. Describing what the drug is used for

3. Describing how effective it is and the major side effects

4. Providing the neurobiological description

Studies from the University of British Columbia show that common household drugs like Tylenol contain properties that could help relieve anxiety.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines