MHRA Warning – Watch out for look-alikes & sound-alikes
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The MHRA have recently highlighted the dangers associated with medicines with look-alike or sound-alike names – including cases with fatal outcomes, in which patients received the wrong medicine due to confusion between similar names.
Drugs pairs known to have been linked to errors include:
- Clobazam / Clonazepam
- Atenolol / Amlodipine
- Propranolol / Prednisolone
- Risperidone / Ropinirole
- Sulfadiazine / Sulfasalazine
- Amlodipine / Nimodipine
The MHRA offer the following Advice for healthcare professionals:
- be extra vigilant when prescribing and dispensing medicines with commonly confused drug names to ensure that the intended medicine is supplied
- if pharmacists have any doubt about which medicine is intended, contact the prescriber before dispensing the drug
- follow local and professional guidance in relation to checking the right medicine has been dispensed to a patient
- report suspected adverse drug reactions where harm has occurred as a result of a medication error on a Yellow Card or via local risk management systems [SIRMS] that feed into the National Reporting and Learning System