Pill dispensers are a simple way for people to ensure they get the medications and supplements they need when they need them.
Pill dispensers help prevent missed dosages, overdoses and confusion over whether a person took this or that medication or supplement.
With the average senior citizen taking 2 or more prescription drugs each day, along with at least 1 recommended supplement pill dispensers have become a practical necessity.
Below we’ve compiled a list of the 20 most important benefits of pill dispensers.
20 Benefits Of Pill Dispensers
Pill dispensers are the kind of simple, affordable product that makes life a little easier. Here are the most important benefits of pill dispensers.
1: Pill dispensers ensure you get what you need when you need it.
The proliferation of prescription meds has created a situation where many people lose track of what they’re supposed to take and when. The pill dispenser alleviates that problem and ensures that the medication you’re taking will have a chance to produce optimal results.
2: Some pill dispensers have reminder alarms.
Pill dispensers have been around for some time. But for most of their history, they were simple boxes with days of the week printed on them. Today, they’ve embraced high-tech and are available with a variety of helpful features, including the reminder alarm. The reminder alarm goes off when it’s time to take your medicine, ensuring you don’t miss a dose and that you always take your meds at the right time.
3: Pill dispensers are easier to use than bottles.
Sometimes so-called ‘childproof’ bottles also wind up being ‘adult proof’ as well. This is especially true for those seniors suffering from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. Pill dispensers are typically much easier to open than a prescription bottle. Some automatic dispensers even open on their own and dispense the medication directly into your hand.
4: Automatic pill dispensers prevent accidental overdose.
Manual pill dispensers are just fine most of the time. However, if a person gets confused about what day it is, they could over-medicate themselves. Automatic pill dispensers prevent that from happening. They dispense only the appropriate meds for that day and keep the rest locked away, preventing unintentional overdose (1).
5: Many pill dispensers are portable.
Some pill dispensers are designed to be set up on a table or nightstand. Others, however, are small and sleek enough to fit into a pocket or purse. These are great for folks who enjoy an active lifestyle. In fact, a lot of folks have a tabletop dispenser for the house and a portable dispenser that they use when they go shopping or go out to visit family and friends.
6: Pill dispensers take the guesswork out of medication.
According to the AARP, the average American 45 or older takes four different prescription drugs every day (2). That’s a pretty incredible statistic for several reasons. But it also points to the urgent need most older folks have to keep everything straight when it comes to their meds. A good pill dispenser can take the guesswork out of the medication process and make sure it’s safe and effective.
7: Pill dispensers remove a major source of stress.
Trying to keep track of things when you’ve been prescribed four or five different medications can be extremely stressful. Being constantly stressed out erodes quality of life, especially for older folks, who experience stress differently than young people (3). Using a pill dispenser to keep your meds straight can go a long way toward eliminating a major potential cause of stress.
8: Pill dispensers help loved ones sleep easier.
When an elderly parent requires regular medication, it can be stressful for their children as well. They don’t always have the time to check on their parents to make sure they’ve taken their meds, and taken them in the correct dosage. Pill dispensers, especially automatic dispensers that offer sound or light-driven alerts, can help the loved ones of an elderly person rest easier.
9: Pill dispensers can be simple or high-tech.
If a person’s memory, sight, and hearing are all in fine condition, there is no need for alarms and flashing lights. A simple dispenser with the days of the week indicated on the slots should be all you need. (Unless there are kids in the house. In that case, you should use a locking dispenser.) On the other hand, if a person needs those helpful alerts, there are plenty of pill dispensers today that offer them.
10: Pill dispensers are affordable.
Considering the prevalence and dangers of adverse drug interactions (4) and the very real possibility of overdosing, pill dispensers are an outstanding value. You can get a simple one for less than 10 dollars or a deluxe automatic dispenser with all the bells and whistles for less than 100 dollars. Even for the most expensive ones, it typically works out to pennies per day on average. That’s a small price to pay for safety.
11: Pill dispensers prevent drug interactions.
If a person has lost track of what pills they’ve recently taken, it increases the risk of adverse drug interactions. Pill dispensers ensure you only take what you need, thereby preventing interactions that could endanger your health or neutralize the effectiveness of your medications.
12: Pill dispensers are not just for seniors.
Most of the people who use pill dispensers are senior citizens. Most, not all. There are millions of people under 65 who also need to take medication for various acute or chronic conditions (5). And while they may not have impaired memory like many older folks, they often have busy lives that make it easy for them to forget things like taking their meds. Pill dispensers can help.
13: Pill dispensers simplify the process of taking meds.
Juggling several bottles of medication, trying to remember how much of which ones you’ve taken can be a challenge. Especially if you’re not feeling well. It’s easy to get confused, overlook things, or take multiple doses of the same meds. Pill dispensers simplify the process by letting you set up everything in advance.
14: Pill dispensers help seniors retain their independence.
All too often, seniors wind up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes because of errors they made in administering medications to themselves (6). If given the opportunity, most would choose to remain independent. Pill dispensers greatly reduce the chances of adverse drug interactions and help seniors retain their independence.
15: Pill dispensers can alert you when you’re running low.
Sometimes a person is not aware they’re running low on a particular medication. Then they open the bottle one day to take their medication and find the bottle empty. With a pill dispenser, that shouldn’t happen. You will notice that you only have enough of a particular medication to fill four or five (or however many) compartments, and you can order a refill before you run out.
16: Pill dispensers make life easier for caregivers.
Whether you are a professional or family member looking after an aging relative, the caregiver’s job seems to get more complicated with each passing year. One of the reasons is that older folks today are taking more medication than ever before (7). Keeping everything straight is an enormous responsibility and can be very stressful. Pill dispensers make the caregiver’s job much easier.
17: Pill dispensers are essential for those with impaired memory.
It is estimated that up to 16 million seniors in America suffer from some degree of memory loss (8). But just like everyone else these people often wind up needing various medications to deal with other health problems. Left to their own devices, it’s likely that their impaired memory will result in a medication problem at some point. Unless they have a pill dispenser.
18: Automatic pill dispensers keep meds away from kids.
Approximately 60,000 children a year in the US accidentally ingest adult medications and wind up in the hospital (9). Most automatic dispensers come with locks that ensure no one can access the meds by mistake. Remember: kids are curious, meds are dangerous, and anyone at any age can forget to put away a pill bottle. Keep meds out of reach of kids by using a locking pill dispenser.
19: Pill dispensers can help the hearing impaired.
Audible alarms are great, but they don’t do much for the hearing impaired. Fortunately, there are also numerous pill dispensers that provide a visible alert in the form of a flashing light that indicates it’s time for the person to take their meds. If you or the person you are buying the dispenser for is hearing-impaired, make sure you get a dispenser with some type of visual alert system.
20: Pill dispensers help improve quality of life.
The bottom line with pill dispensers is that they help to improve the quality of life for all concerned (10). They help ensure the people who need meds get them on time and in the proper dose. They make life easier on caregivers, they reduce stress on family members, and they help seniors maintain their independence longer. In many ways, they’re like the humble Stop sign in that they’re simple, effective, and they save lives.
Conclusion
More people are being prescribed more medications than ever before. At the same time people have become reliant of dietary supplements to fill nutritional gaps. Pill dispensers are the simple, affordable way a person can keep all of these things straight and avoid missed doses and worse, overdoses.