What Your Doctor Wants to Know About You:
Medications You Take
The Importance of Medications
Medications are given to a patient to help them with an illness or to ease a patients suffering from ailments or uncomfortable symptoms. Often a doctor may ask a patient about their medical history, or what type of medications they have taken in the past, or may still be taking. There can be many reasons for a doctor asking this question, and the patient should answer these questions as honestly and to the best of their knowledge.
The Importance of Letting Your Doctor Know What Medications You Have Taken
Some of the reasons why doctors may ask what medications a patient has taken before, could be to better understand what treatments will work more effectively for a patients current illness or complaint. A doctor may also be asking what medications the patient has taken before to better understand what illnesses the patient has suffered from in the past.
On the other hand a doctor may ask you about their previous medications, and whether the patient is still taking them as some medications don’t mix well together or other medications the patient may still be taking could be outdated or a better treatment may have come along. Sometimes the medication that a patient is taking may be causing the patient to get ill, or be the cause of their current problem. If your doctor asks a patient about their medication history, it is important for the patient to tell their doctor about all of their medications, even if they don’t seem to be related to the patient’s current problem.
By asking questions such as what medications a patient has taken before the doctor may also be able to help jog a patients memory about illnesses that they have had before and forgot to mention. Often patients feel that past illnesses are not worth mentioning, as it has nothing to do with their current problem, this may or may not be the case, but it is better to tell the doctor anyway.
Medication Interaction
If you doctor intends to prescribe some new or additional medications for you, it is very important that your doctor know what medications you are taking. Medications interact differently with other medications. In some instances the mixing of medications can have very negative effects and consequences.
For this reason, it is imperative that you provide your doctor with complete information about your medications. Indeed, you need to bring along all medications you are taking to your doctor when you see your doctor for an appointment.
Your Diet
Diet -- what you eat and when you eat -- can effect medications that you might be taking. You need to pay close attention to any information that you are provided about diet and your medication or medications. In addition, you need to follow any directions that you are given in regard to your diet and the medications you are taking. A failure to do so can have seriously negative consequences in some cases.
|
