Question

Mrs. Carr receives a prescription from her physician. The prescription is for Lipitor 20 mg p.o. q.d. How often should she take this medication?

Answer 1

Mrs. Carr should take her Lipitor 20 mg medication once daily as indicated by 'p.o. q.d.' on the prescription. It is important to adhere to the dosage frequency for the medication to be effective. For instance, with Synthroid prescribed at 0.225 mg, a patient would need 3 tablets of 75 µg each per day.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mrs. Carr has received a prescription for Lipitor 20 mg to take orally and the instruction is denoted as 'p.o. q.d.' which stands for 'per os (by mouth) once daily.' Thus, she should take the medication once a day. This is a common prescription frequency and it is crucial that she follows the specific dosing schedule to ensure the medication's effectiveness and to remain compliant with her treatment plan.

In a real-world example, if a patient is prescribed a dosage of 0.225 mg of Synthroid and the tablets available contain 75 µg, we need to convert milligrams to micrograms since 1 mg equals 1000 µg. The prescribed dose of 0.225 mg is equivalent to 225 µg. Dividing this by the strength of the tablets which is 75 µg, we find that the patient would need 3 tablets per day to meet the prescribed dose.