Dehydration can be a significant risk to people taking certain medicines. The Sick Day Rule cards have been produced to aid patients in understanding which medicines they should stop taking temporarily during illness which can result in dehydration (e.g. vomiting, diarrhoea and fever).
Which medicines and why?
This is not an exhaustive list but are highlighted because:
- Diuretics: (e.g. furosemide or bendroflumethiazide) can cause dehydration or make dehydration more likely in an ill patient.
- ACE Inhibitors (medicines ending in ‘pril’), ARBs (medicines ending in ‘sartan’) and NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen or naproxen) when dehydrated these medicines may impair kidney function which could lead to kidney failure
- Metformin (a medicine for Diabetes) dehydration increases the risk of lactic acidosis, a serious and potentially life-threatening side effect of metformin.
What advice should be given to patients?
The Sick Day Rule Cards can be downloaded here. These cards have space on the reverse side for the patient or Health Care Professional (HCP) to write the names of which medicines they should stop taking when they are ill.
Some medicines are already listed on the back of the card, patients or HCPs should tick any of the medicines already listed if it should be stopped when ill.
Patient Information Leaflets and Health Professional Briefings are available from Scottish Patient Safety Programme Website