When you’re not sure what a pill is, there are ways to find out. Online tools and resources can help you identify pills and find out what medication they contain. Please keep reading to learn more about pill identification or how to identify an unknown medication.
When Would You Need to Identify a Pill?
You may need to identify a pill in the following situations:
- You found a loose pill lying around and aren’t sure what medication it contains.
- You mixed up your medications and want to make sure you’re taking them correctly.
- You picked up a new prescription from the pharmacy and want to use a pill identifier to ensure you got the correct drug.
- You got a refill on your medications and are worried because the pills look different from before.
- You found a pill in your teenager’s pocket and are curious about what it could be.
- You are misusing or abusing prescription drugs and want to identify pills obtained illegally.
What Are the Ways to Identify a Pill or Unknown Medication?
You can identify a pill (both the generic drug and brand name) based on various attributes, such as the imprint code, shape, color, form and scoring.
Imprint Code
The text (numbers and letters) and logo on a pill are called the imprint code and can be used to identify the pill. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires most prescription and over-the-counter medications to have an imprint code.
Shape
The shape of a pill can help with pill identification. Pills come in various shapes, the most common being round, oval, and oblong. More unusual shapes include triangle, square, rectangle, diamond shaped, five-sided (pentagonal), and six-sided (hexagonal).
Color
The color of a pill can help with medication identification. Common pill colors are white, clear, brown, yellow, red, pink, orange, blue, and green. Not all pills are one solid color. Some tablets are a different color on the inside and the outside. Capsules are sometimes made of two different colored pieces. Some tablets and caplets have a pattern, such as specks on a solid background.
Form
Pills come in tablet, capsule, and caplet forms. Entering the form into a pill identification tool can help in verifying the medication name. Keep in mind that the same medication may come in different forms and colors, for example, both as a white tablet and green capsule.
Scoring
Some tablets have a score or line cut into them. This allows the pills to be split to obtain multiple smaller doses. It is done to reduce costs by commercially manufacturing tablets containing larger doses instead of multiple dosages. A tablet may have no scoring, a single score line down the middle, partial (broken line) scoring, or multiple scorings. The scoring pattern may be present on the same side as the imprint code or on the reverse side of the pill.
Tools to Help Identify Pills
The following online tools and resources allow you to search pills and identify medications based on the imprint code, shape, color, form, and scoring pattern.
- Poison Control Pill Identifier
- FDA’s Drug Identification
- Medscape Pill Identifier
- Medication identification apps such as MedSnap for iPhone that allow you to identify a pill by clicking a photo of it
Note: Sometimes the imprint code can be hard to read, especially on very small pills. Use a magnifying glass, if needed, to ensure you don’t make mistakes.
What Are the Risks of Misusing Prescription Pills or Taking an Unknown Pill?
You may have a perfectly legitimate reason for reading up on “how to identify a pill.” However, it’s also possible you are misusing or abusing prescription drugs, such as opioid pain medications (OxyContin, Vicodin), benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax), or stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin). Many people abuse prescription drugs by obtaining them from illegal sources (street dealers) or taking medications prescribed to family members or friends.
It’s common for people to think prescription drugs are safe, because after all, they are legitimate medications prescribed to thousands of people by healthcare professionals. But taking prescription drugs without a doctor’s orders is more dangerous than you might think. Also, this is drug abuse and it is illegal, just like taking street drugs.
When healthcare professionals give you a prescription drug, they first listen to your symptoms, examine you, order tests, and then prescribe the right dose of the right medicine for your medical condition. They also tell you exactly how to take the medicine, what to avoid while on it, side effects to expect, and when to seek medical attention. When you take a prescription medication without this oversight by a healthcare provider, it can be extremely dangerous.
Which Unknown Medications are Especially Dangerous?
Even one pill of an unknown medication can be fatal. Young children between the ages of 18 and 36 months are at an especially high risk of finding a pill and putting it in their mouths. Some of the medications that can be especially dangerous if you take them without a doctor’s orders include:
Do you have a loved one struggling with addiction?
We know how hard that can be. Give us a call to find out what options you have.
+18442884672 - Medications used to treat heart problems, which can cause dangerously low blood pressure and heart rate.
- Opioid pain medications, which can cause slowed or stopped breathing and cardiac arrest.
- Camphor (an ingredient in many over-the-counter products), which can cause seizures.
- Oil of wintergreen, which contains the active ingredient methyl salicylate which is closely related to aspirin, and which can cause nausea, vomiting, sweating, swelling in the brain, coma, and even death.
- Antidepressants, which can cause seizures and abnormal heart rhythms.
Note: The sustained-release or extended-release forms of medications contain a larger dose of the medicine that is designed to be released and absorbed over a period of time. Accidentally taking these pills without knowing what they are can have serious health consequences.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pill Identification
What is the meaning of numbers or letters on a pill?
The numbers and letters on a pill are called the imprint code. They allow for pill identification when combined with the color, shape, form, and scoring on the pill. You can find out the active ingredients, strength, and manufacturer of the drug from the imprint code.
Can different medications have the same imprint?
Different medications can have the same imprint. However, the overall
appearance of a drug—the combination of the imprint code, shape, color, form, and scoring—will be unique. This combination of characteristics allows all legally manufactured pills to be correctly identified.
What should you do if a pill has no imprint?
You may be able to identify a pill that has no imprint with a pill identification tool based on other characteristics such as the color, shape, form, and scoring. However, the lack of an imprint code can make identifying a pill more difficult. Pills that don’t have an imprint code may be dietary supplements which are not regulated by the FDA. They could also be illegal drugs manufactured and imported into the US from another country.
What is the line in the middle of some tablets?
The line in the middle of some tablets is called the scoring. It allows you to break the tablet into smaller doses, if needed. The scoring pattern on a pill can help with medication identification.
Can a pill identification tool identify pills obtained from street dealers?
Pill identification and drug information may be possible in some cases when the drugs are obtained from street dealers. Identifying a pill using online tools can serve as a harm reduction measure for prescription drugs obtained illegally.
However, medication identification using online tools has limited use in such instances. This is because many of the pills are brought into the country from overseas and are not in the pill identification databases. In other words, you may not find the drug name even after putting in all the information (imprint code, shape, color, form, and scoring) into the pill identifier.
Note: When you purchase drugs from street dealers, you are putting your life at risk. Illegal drugs often contain unknown harmful substances and toxins. Additionally, there is no way for you to know if a pill actually contains what the dealer says it contains.
Support For Medication Addictions
If you are looking up information on pill identification tools, there’s a strong possibility you or a loved one is misusing or abusing prescription drugs. If this is the case, it’s time to get help.
Call Discover Recovery today to check your eligibility for our drug rehabilitation programs. We offer customized treatment plans for people addicted to prescription drugs. Our highly experienced team of medical professionals can help you reduce or stop prescription drug abuse and lower your risk of serious health complications, including overdose and death.
