Pre-emptive advance prescriptions

The involvement of medical approaches changes almost day by day. Whenever you visit your doctor, you’ll almost certainly get introduced to new approaches. Some are so simplistic you’d always wonder why it took so long to take them up.

Others are complex and hi-tech, shaped by the current trend of incessant innovations.You might have heard of the practice of giving patients advance prescriptions, or maybe not.This is really not new. The practice has been around for ages, but mainly restricted to chronic conditions which require prolonged treatment.Getting a prescription that covers a chronic condition for say 3 months is not unheard of.

What has not been commonplace is getting a prescription to treat some condition that has not yet emerged, but has a high chance of occurring at some time in the future. Yes, it’s a practice you should well be aware of, comes in handy in certain situations.

Some not so obvious situations may already have crossed your mind. Emergency contraception is one example, where you end up having unprotected sex when you should know better. The emergency pill should be available without a prescription, but it’s not unusual for pharmacists to demand for one. Having had an advance unfilled prescription will bail you out in good time, and reduce the risk of an unwanted pregnancy. You could go one better and think of an advance prescription for post-exposure prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The list of potential reasons for advance prescriptions can be stretched to include potent painkillers, anti-infectives, seasonal vaccines etc.

The next time you are consulting over something, take time to review your circumstances and bring up the issue of advance prescriptions. This is not to suggest that you will suddenly become careless and start engaging in unhealthy behavior. You are simply being overly cautious and pro-active. You will save time and money by not coming into your doctor’s so often. And you will commence on the required medication in a timely manner, before the clinical situation unfolds into a more advanced state. Your doctor will benefit too by not having unending queues in the office for mundane reasons. Always keep an open mind when desiring advance prescriptions. Your doctor has the leeway to decline, owing to prescription regulations and specific clinical situations.

But advance prescriptions have several limitations. You and your doctor must exercise extreme caution when making pre-emptive treatment decisions. The condition being predetermined must be simple to treat and fraught with minimal complications. Advance prescriptions are best placed for preventive ailments, and relatively safe medications. There should also be a cap on how long the prescription should remain valid. Even simple clinical situations evolve over time, and a physical review is warranted at predetermined intervals. Play it safe and get advance prescriptions only in highly selected situations, and shun them the rest of the time.