What does it mean to take a drug three times daily? every 8 hours?

I always used to ask how the prescriber wants me to take it if the instructions say "every 8 hours"; especially if it's antibiotics or pain meds. I used to be a vet tech and we mean, basically 3x a day... its waking hours. Not the same for every 8 hours. Set an alarm for every 8 hours... make sense? When I'm in the hospital, which is often, I'm woken up in the wee hours of the morning or middle of the night to be given meds; every 8 hours. Since I started having more hospital stays, if I get a prescription that says every 8 hours, I will set an alarm for every 8 hours; especially for antibiotics and pain meds since the idea is for the antibiotics to have a cumulative effect and you want to take the pain meds BEFORE the pain sets in again; hence being woken up anytime between midnight and 6am to stay on schedule; it sucks. If it says 3x/day, I make sure to try to space it out 3x throughout the hours I'm awake.
Hope this was helpful!

I asked the pharmacist when I picked up my prescription, he told me 3 times daily meant every 8 hours.

09am, 1pm 5pm

People every 8hrs means every 8hrs not 3 times a day breakfeast lunch and diner isn't every 8hrs. If you are sleeping and your not and bothered by pain don't take it at midnight you don't need it. If yoyr awake and hurting by all means take it. If your waking up taking won in the morning but it doesn't help taking one pill then by all means set your alarm so your not hurting. Because not taking it at midnight leaves you in to much pain.If you take them morning noon and evening and then wake up at 1 or hurting that means your not taking the far enough apart or you have to take a 4th pill for pain. Use common sense people.

Breakfast lunch and dinner would be sufficient, if it says three times a day on the label.

I'll add more to the confusion about taking three times a day I have an herb bottle here that says take 3 capsules daily does that mean take all 3 at the same time or does it means take throughout the day or in a 24-hour period?

Yes take every eight hours.

Until I see my physician again, I will take them as I have been, it's a new prescription so I haven't really straightened it out yet, but I take them every 6 hours, 3 times a day during waking hours, this correlates with my other prescriptions that I take twice daily, every 12 hours. I think that is the correct spacing. The three times a day prescription is taken at 7am, 1pm, and 7pm, the twice daily I take at 7am and 7pm. Make sense?

Yes

I guess kaismama meant "self-explanatory" in his/her very condescending answer, but if it were self-explanatory, why would thousands of people be searching for an answer? It is confusing because many people don't know whether the prescribing physician means every 24 hours, and those 24 hours must be divided equally. That is where the confusion lies. They DO NOT. Though kaismama is correct with the math, physicians consider a "DAY" in this case to be a "WAKING DAY," and not an equally divided 24 hour period. Three times daily typically means, "Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner." I fail to understand why they don't just say that when they write the script, but this has been a question put to pharmacists for at least the past century. KInda' silly, right? To conclude, "Three times a day" means "Three times between waking in the morning, and going to bed at night. With each meal is an acceptable way to take your doses, assuming that you eat three times daily.

Three times daily means three times from the time you get up until you go to bed. If you're supposed to take it every eight hours, the script would say "take every 8 hours". I'm a nurse. :)

Yes every 8 hours

That's pretty expanatory, you will take 3 pills a day, 8 hrs apart. eg 8AM 4pm 12 am