A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
"Rx" is often used as a short form for prescription drug in North America. It is an abbreviation for the Latin "recipe", an imperative form of "recipere", meaning "take".
Prescription drugs are often dispensed together with a monograph (in Europe, a Patient Information Leaflet or PIL) that gives detailed information about the drug.
Read more about Prescription Drug: Regulation in United States, Regulation in United Kingdom, Regulation in Australia, Expiration Date, Environmental Problems
Famous quotes containing the words prescription and/or drug:
“I am like a doctor. I have written a prescription to help the patient. If the patient doesn’t want all the pills I’ve recommended that’s up to him. But I must warn that next time I will have to come as a surgeon with a knife.”
—Javier Pérez De Cuéllar (b. 1920)
“Most people aren’t appreciated enough, and the bravest things we do in our lives are usually known only to ourselves. No one throws ticker tape on the man who chose to be faithful to his wife, on the lawyer who didn’t take the drug money, or the daughter who held her tongue again and again. All this anonymous heroism.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)