Look Inside Young Adult Road Map

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Guiding Star Point four: Manage Information
Various smartphone apps
also allow patients to track
medication usage. The main
thing is to keep it simple and
make sure it fits your style.
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Preventing Confusion About Drug Samples
Sometimes the doctor will titrate a new medication (build up from a smaller to a larger
dose over a period of days or weeks). This is done to find out what amount works best
or to cut down on possible side effects. Some medications need to build up in the
body over days or weeks to be effective. In a crisis, a doctor may prescribe an extra
medication (for a short time) to keep symptoms under control until another medication
has time to build up to a therapeutic dose. If a new medication is being tried
(especially if the medication is expensive), the provider may start you with free samples.
He or she may say something such as, “Take 10 milligrams for the first three days,
then raise it to 20 milligrams for a week, then call and let me know how it’s going.”
The trouble is that a sample package does not have your dosage on the label the way
a regular prescription would. It’s easy to get confused, especially when you are
changing the dosage from day to day. Be sure you know the dosage of pills in the
sample package.
Keeping a Titration Record
Ask the provider to write down instructions for titrating medications. If you’re getting
a prescription, ask the doctor to write titration instructions on the prescription form.
This will help to ensure that you get the right number of pills from the pharmacy.
If a medicine is being titrated (gradually increased over days or weeks), you will need
to keep the dosage straight and observe results. Here is a five-point plan for keeping
things straight:
1. An easy method for keeping track of titration doses is to use the inexpensive
calendar you put in the front of your binder (see page 45).
2. In each day block, write the medication name and correct dose for that day
(example: 5 mg at breakfast, 5 mg before bed).
3. Put a check by the medication name when that dose is taken.
4. At the end of the day or the next day, you can jot down a few words about side
effects and results, such as “Less appetite. Got all homework done without
prompting.”
5. This gives you a simple and accurate day-to-day record of how the medicine worked
at different levels. At the next appointment, you can show this calendar page to
the doctor.
Various smartphone apps also allow patients to track medication usage. The main thing
is to keep it simple and make sure it fits your style.
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