Monday Pharmaceutical Mystery: September 24

A women picks up her husband's new medications from your pharmacy. She indicates that he was just released from the hospital, due to a stroke. She shows you his hospital paperwork and asks you why you did not fill the medications he was taking while in the hospital, particularly the levetiracetam and the prednisone. She asks you if you made a mistake, since she knows those are very important medications.

Mystery: What happen to the levetiracetam and prednisone prescriptions? Isn’t it dangerous to suddenly stop taking a seizure medication and steroid suddenly?

Solution: Levetiracetam and prednisone were used as preventative medications in the hospital to prevent new onset seizures post strokes. If the patient did not have any problems with seizures in the hospital, he does not need to continue these medications at home.