Critical Analysis of Look Alike and Sound Alike Branded Drug Names in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Look Alike and Sound Alike (LASA) drugs or confusing drug names are among the most common reasons for medication errors worldwide and the potential for confusion is significant because of presence of numerous drugs in the market. The purpose of this article is to analyze those LASA brand drug pair which could result in potential medication errors, if interchanged and also to suggest possible methods of reducing errors due to LASA. The recent issues of drug formularies such as Current Index of Medical Specialities (CIMS), Drug Today, RefRx, Indian Drug Review and others were used as source of data and all the potentially confusing brand drug names were analyzed and categorized into various groups. A total of 304 LASA brand drug pair names with different generic drug composition were analyzed. Most of the LASA brand drug pair started from alphabet “A”, and were antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: Look Alike and Sound Alike (LASA) drugs, brand names, Levenshtein distance (LD)

Cite this Article

Nagabushan H, Priyadarshini B. Critical Analysis of Look Alike and Sound Alike Branded Drug Names in Clinical Practice. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Pharmacology (RRJoP). 2016; 6(1): 4–9p.