What Are Recipe Colors and Their Meanings?

When you feel any discomfort, you go to the nearest health institution and you are examined by a specialist doctor. After the examination, the doctor prescribes some medicines according to your condition, and you go to the pharmacy with this prescription and take your medicines. You may have never noticed or taken this type of medicine, but some prescriptions are classified by different colors. Prescription colors gain meaning according to the drugs included in the prescription.

Prescription colors and which physicians can prescribe the drugs in these prescriptions are specified in the Health Practice Communiqué prepared by the Ministry of Health. In general, drugs written for simpler diseases are taken with a white prescription, but some of them can be named in different colors due to the active ingredients of the drugs. Let’s examine the recipe colors, types and meanings in all details.

Firstly; What is a prescription, what information does it contain?

A prescription is the paper on which the medicines required for the patient’s use are written specifically for him by the physician. These papers are official documents and it is a crime to manipulate them. Today, prescriptions are created digitally and the patient is given a code for this prescription. With this code, the patient can get their medication from the pharmacy. In accordance with the Health Implementation Communiqué, not every physician can prescribe every drug. The basic information in the prescription is as follows;

• Patient’s first and last name
• The patient’s ID number
• Inspection date and time
• General diagnostic information of the disease
• Inspection protocol number
• Medications prescribed to the patient
• Doses of prescribed drugs
• Name, surname and registration number of the doctor who prescribed the drugs

What are the prescription colors, what do they mean?

• white recipe
• red recipe
• green recipe
• Orange recipe
• purple recipe

white recipe

In general, most of the drugs prescribed by physicians are evaluated within the scope of white prescription. These drugs are not subject to control. Medicines evaluated within the scope of white prescription can be written by all physicians, including general practitioners and specialist physicians. Diabetes medications, antibiotics, blood pressure medications and simple painkillers; It is among the drugs evaluated within the scope of white prescription.

red recipe

Drugs containing narcotic substances are evaluated within the scope of red prescription. Such drugs can only be prescribed by specialist physicians in some fields. Red prescriptions were first used in 1985.

You cannot obtain drugs that are evaluated within the scope of red prescription without a prescription written by a specialist physician. These drugs are controlled due to their narcotic properties. Physicians do not easily prescribe such drugs. Some of the diseases for which red prescription drugs are prescribed are as follows;

• psychotic disorders
• some types of cancer
• Cancer-related pain
• Some psychiatric diseases
• Pain that cannot be avoided
• Chronic pain

green recipe

Psychotropic drugs, which have addictive properties, are evaluated within the scope of green prescription. Such drugs can only be prescribed by specialist physicians in some fields. The main difference between a green prescription and a red prescription is that green prescription drugs are less addictive. The green recipe was first used in 1986. Some of the active ingredients of the drugs evaluated within the scope of green prescription are as follows;

• alprazolam
• diazepam
• Ketamine
• etomidate

Orange recipe

Hematological drugs written for some blood diseases are evaluated within the scope of orange prescription. In particular, drugs related to blood coagulation are considered within the scope of orange prescription. With the orange prescription, some blood products are taken along with the drugs.

purple recipe

Hematological drugs written for some blood diseases are evaluated within the scope of purple prescription. With the purple prescription, blood products other than albumin and similar factors are also taken.

Reasons for using colored prescriptions:

The primary purpose of using colored prescriptions is to ensure that drugs are used more accurately and effectively by patients. Other important reasons are preventing the misuse of the drugs in question and preventing the drugs containing narcotic substances from falling into the hands of addicts and smugglers.

Even if you don’t have a prescription, you can go to the pharmacy and get most of the drugs that are considered within the scope of white prescription. However, such a situation is not possible for drugs evaluated within the scope of red prescription and green prescription. Because of their active ingredients, they can also be used by drug addicts.

At this point, it is useful to make a small reminder. Do not buy or use it without consulting your doctor, regardless of what kind of ailment you are using. A drug you have used before may be good for you at that time, but the same drug may harm you in another period. For this reason, when you have a problem with drugs, you should go to the nearest health institution and get information from a specialist doctor.

So, how can you see the prescriptions and medicines written?

• Step #1: Open the e-Nabız website via the link here.
• Step #2: Log in to the system with your e-Nabız account information or your e-Government account information.
• Step #3: Click on My Prescriptions in the left column.
• Step #4: Click the View Detail button next to the recipe you want to review.
• Step #5: You can have much more detailed information about the drug with the Transactions bot.

You can access the prescriptions written on your behalf by a specialist physician and all the medicines that were written under the prescription on the My Prescriptions page in the e-Nabız system. When you open the page for the first time, the last written recipe will appear. You can also view your previously written recipes with the Show More Results button.

You can see important information about the drug when you enter the date, time, prescription number, prescription type, prescriber and details of the prescription you view on the My Prescriptions page in the e-Nabız system. If you wish, you can get information by sharing this information with your doctor or pharmacy.

About drug use and prescriptions:

Unfortunately, drugs and drug use in our country are sometimes underestimated issues. We can recommend a medicine that is good for us to someone else as if we were an expert. However, this is extremely dangerous. There are many different active ingredients in all medicines, even if they are not sold with a prescription. The active ingredient in question may be good today, but may be harmful tomorrow. Please do not neglect to follow the advice of physicians and pharmacists about medicine.

We answered the question of what are the recipe colors and types, which have different classifications such as red recipe, green recipe, and talked about what all these mean. Please note that as in all health issues, you should go to the health institution and get the most accurate and specific information from a specialist doctor or at least consult a pharmacist.