How to Identify a Capsule Pill by Number & Color

Few things cause more anxiety than having prescription drugs get separated from their labeled containers. How do you know which drug is which, and how much to take? Identifying a pill by number and color is easy to do, thanks to resources developed by government agencies, pharmaceutical websites and references found in your local library.

Instructions

• 1

  Ask your doctor or pharmacist. The easiest way to identify a pill is to take it to your doctor or to the pharmacist on duty at your local pharmacy. Either the doctor or the pharmacist will be able to identify the pill using reference materials or by looking up the prescriptions you have on file. Telling your doctor or the pharmacist what conditions you may have also will help him identify the drug.

• 2

  Search for your pill using online resources. Websites developed by government organizations or by pharmaceutical databases are optimal choices to identify a pill. The National Institutes of Health maintains a list of resources ranging from the NIH Pillbox to Food and Drug Administration tools to identify drugs by shape, color or imprint (see links in References). You can search these resources by any of the pill's attributes, or you can browse photos of pills to locate your pill. Online pill identifiers such as the Drugs.com tool allow you to search for pills based on a variety of characteristics.

• 3

  Visit your local public or medical library and identify your pill using a reference copy of the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR). The PDR contains information about every drug currently on the market; color photos of the pills are found at the center of the book, which you can browse to find a match for your pill.