Tamper‐resistant Packaging: Is It Elder‐resistant, Too?

A tamper‐resistant package has an indicator or barrier to entry that, if breached or missing, can reasonably be expected to provide visible evidence to consumers that tampering has occurred. Regulations to implement tamper‐resistant packaging on all over‐the‐counter drugs and certain cosmetics began in February 1983. Tamper‐resistant packaging, like child‐resistant packaging, may impede access by the elderly and other adults who have mental, motor, and/or sensory disabilities. This article describes: 1) the reasons for the increasing use of over‐the‐counter medications in the prevention and treatment of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the elderly; 2) the types of difficulties encountered in opening tamper‐resistant packaging; 3) the causes of these inaccessibility problems; 4) the methods to correct them; and 5) testing procedures to determine whether the existing designs of tamper‐resistant packaging are accessible by the elderly and adults with selected disabilities. Testing of individual types of tamper‐resistant packaging, multiple types of tamper‐resistant packagings on the same container, and combinations of tamper‐resistant packagings and child‐resistant packagings on groups of normal elderly people and those with selected disabilities is necessary to guarantee accessibility to the growing number of therapeutically efficacious nonprescription medications used by these populations. J Am Geriatr Soc 33:136, 1985 1985 The American Geriatrics Society