List of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions

With the advent of prescription privileges for clinical psychologists it is important that we understand the language used.

This is a list of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions (sometimes referred to as sig codes). This listing does not include abbreviations for actual pharmaceuticals (which is a separate article in itself). Capitalization and the use of periods is a matter of style. In the attached list, Latin is not capitalized whereas English acronyms are. The period is used wherever there are letters omitted in the abbreviation. Abbreviations which are officially not to be used as required by the Joint Commission are marked in red. Those abbreviations which are discouraged from use by other organizations are marked in orange.

Numerical abbreviation
When expressing a numerical quantity, roman numerals are commonly used in place of actual digits so as to avoid confusion and foil attempts to receive more medication than prescribed. For numbers 1-3 however, a special abbreviation is used. The number one is written as a capital letter T with one dot overhead. The number two consists of two capital "T" letters connected at the top with a dot over each (resembling the Greek letter pi). The number three is likewise three "T" letters with three dots overhead. A similar system of numbering exists using the lower case letter "i" for the number one.

Discouraged practices

 * Abbreviating names of drugs
 * Using apothecary's units
 * Using trailing zeros or not using a leading zero