TY  - JOUR
T1  - LAbels for prescribed drugs
AU  - Dirckx JH
Y1  - 1979/08/03
N1  - 10.1001/jama.1979.03300050011005
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 413
EP  - 414
VL  - 242
IS  - 5
N2  - To the Editor.— 
    Dosage errors made by patients taking prescription medications are usually blamed on ignorance or carelessness. I suspect that many such errors result from the way that pharmacists apply labels to prescription bottles.Presently, nearly all medications prescribed for adults come in tablets or capsules that are almost universally dispensed in cylindrical plastic bottles. Customarily, the label is so placed that the lines of writing wrap around the circumference of the bottle. Unless this circumference is at least three times the width of the label, part of each line of directions is out of view no matter how the bottle is held. To read the label of a typical prescription bottle, one must rotate it through a substantial arc for each line of writing and then rotate it back for the start of the next line.Even an alert, intelligent, practiced reader with good visual acuity finds the
SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.1979.03300050011005
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1979.03300050011005
ER  -