5 ms·

> You can't fix stupid True, but you can fix bad design. I have a chronic ailment and take medication for it. Every single box comes with that strip of paper

> You can't fix stupid True, but you can fix bad design. I have a chronic ailment and take medication for it. Every single box comes with that strip of paper with important information. The problem? It's tiny, extremely dry and technical, and is barely readable even by someone who wants to understand it (me). There's absolutely a need for making more readable pamphlets. Until anybody cares the manufacturers will just put in the bare legal effort, and patients may suffer.

giantg2 4y ago
You can always ask your doctor or pharmacist. Or even look up WebMD etc.
flowerbreeze 4y ago
I agree, it would be nice to have boxes of medication come with obvious large prints in style "grapefruit + this medicine = DEATH, tomato juice + this medicine = VOMIT FOR DAYS, YAY". It seems that the most deadly things should be pointed out in bold and in as simple language as possible. Like in (human friendly) UX design, what is important should look important. I suspect that the reason they don't want to put it on the boxes is largely because brands don't want medication to look dangerous in any way. The excuse that might be made about is that "pamphlet must be read too, and if we print something on the box people won't read pamphlets", but it does not seem very convincing.
- refurb 4y ago
  There are people at the FDA who do this day in and day out. Packaging is all approved by the FDA. Grapefruit interactions are a concern but so are a dozen other pieces of info. When I’ve gotten a prescription with a grapefruit interaction the medicine had a colorful sticker with a picture of grapefruit on it. That certainly caught my attention. https://shop.gohcl.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=2959 https://shop.gohcl.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcod...
  - flowerbreeze 4y ago
    This looks great, exactly what I meant. I'm not in US, and I've never seen any similar warnings on any medication unfortunately.
drewcoo 4y ago
Manga for prescription interactions makes a lot more sense than warnings on everything with grapefruit.

giantg2 4y ago

You can always ask your doctor or pharmacist. Or even look up WebMD etc.

flowerbreeze 4y ago

I agree, it would be nice to have boxes of medication come with obvious large prints in style "grapefruit + this medicine = DEATH, tomato juice + this medicine = VOMIT FOR DAYS, YAY". It seems that the most deadly things should be pointed out in bold and in as simple language as possible. Like in (human friendly) UX design, what is important should look important. I suspect that the reason they don't want to put it on the boxes is largely because brands don't want medication to look dangerous in any way. The excuse that might be made about is that "pamphlet must be read too, and if we print something on the box people won't read pamphlets", but it does not seem very convincing.

refurb 4y ago
There are people at the FDA who do this day in and day out. Packaging is all approved by the FDA. Grapefruit interactions are a concern but so are a dozen other pieces of info. When I’ve gotten a prescription with a grapefruit interaction the medicine had a colorful sticker with a picture of grapefruit on it. That certainly caught my attention. https://shop.gohcl.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=2959 https://shop.gohcl.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcod...
- flowerbreeze 4y ago
  This looks great, exactly what I meant. I'm not in US, and I've never seen any similar warnings on any medication unfortunately.

drewcoo 4y ago

Manga for prescription interactions makes a lot more sense than warnings on everything with grapefruit.