Types of Medication

Home » Web Guides » Health » Medication

In This Guide

Most Popular

Medication: The Facts on Prescription, Over-the-Counter, and Herbal Medications

Medications have many forms. When taken correctly, they can be lifesaving, but if misused or abused, their effects can be deadly. The sites featured in this guide can help you learn about medications by distinguishing between the different kinds, providing usage instructions and overviews of specific drugs, outlining ways to find help paying for medication, and more.

Expand All Guide Sections

Types of Medication

The types of medication that people take at home can be divided into two groups: prescription and over-the-counter. Also, many people use herbal supplements to treat a variety of symptoms and conditions. Although these differ in many ways, they share one major characteristic: they are all substances that can affect your body in positive and negative ways. This section can help you understand how prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and herbal supplements differ.

Dulcinea's Insight

Prescription and over-the-counter medications are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Approved medications have to be proven safe and effective. Over-the-counter drugs generally don’t need a doctor’s supervision to be used safely, and their risk of abuse is low, according to the FDA.

The FDA does not regulate herbal supplements the same way it regulates prescription drugs. That means supplements aren’t tested like pharmaceuticals, and there isn’t the same guarantee of the substance’s purity or safety. Always talk to your doctor before you decide to take a supplement.

Generic medications are those that have a similar chemical makeup to a brand-name drug, but aren’t made by the company that developed and patented it. For example, Claritin, an over-the-counter allergy medication, is found in many supermarkets. Beside it are store-brand medications that are cheaper but have the same active ingredient: loratadine. Generic medications are nearly identical chemically, but cost less.

Dulcinea's Picks

For definitions of “prescription” and “over-the-counter” …

MedicineNet’s MedTerms Dictionary has a definition of prescription drugs and a brief definition of over-the-counter medication.

go to site »

For an overview of prescription medications …

eMedicineHealth is part of the WebMD family. This site describes prescription medication, explains how it differs from over-the-counter medication, and provides historical background.

go to site »

For an overview of over-the-counter medications …

MedlinePlus is a site run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The site has a short introduction to over-the-counter medication.

go to site »

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers more detail on the types of over-the-counter medications sold. There’s also a section on reading an over-the-counter label and advice for getting the most from your medication.

go to site »

For an overview of herbal supplements …

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has an introduction to dietary supplements. It addresses questions such as “Does ‘natural’ always mean ‘safe’?” and “Does the Federal Government regulate supplements?”

go to site »

The Office of Dietary Supplements is part of the National Institutes of Health and has a useful overview of botanicals, including herbal supplements. This page describes what legally defines a supplement, how supplements are prepared, and what methods are used to evaluate a supplement’s safety.

go to site »

For an explanation of generic medication …

eMedicineHealth has a page describing generic medication with examples from your supermarket and information on how it differs from name-brand medication.

go to site »