By: Dr. Amay Tripathi, Asstt. Editor-ICN
LUCKNOW: Living in 21st century is filled with challenges pertaining to newer physical, biological and environmental phenomena. Humans have learned to overcome such daunting conditions since time immemorial, but there have also been times when life has been threatened with complete disaster.
While global warming and adverse effects of certain technological advancements make news every other day, a dark cloud is silently looming large over the horizon in the form of drug-resistant micro-organisms and newer forms of diseases. Scientific and medical circles all over the world are trying to spread awareness among general public regarding the dangers of self-medication.
Self-medication is defined as the selection and use of medicines by individuals (or a member of the individuals’ family) to treat self-recognized or self-diagnosed conditions or symptoms. Although self-medication has been associated with benefits like increased access to medication and relief for the patient, the active role of the patient in his or her own health care, better use of physicians’ and pharmacists’ skills and reduced (or at least optimized) burden of governments due to health expenditure linked to the treatment of minor health conditions, it is far from being a completely safe practice, in particular in the case of non-responsible and indiscriminate self-medication.
Potential risks of self-medication practices include: incorrect self-diagnosis, delays in seeking medical advice when needed, infrequent but severe adverse reactions, dangerous drug interactions, incorrect manner of administration, incorrect dosage, incorrect choice of therapy, masking of a severe disease and risk of dependence and abuse. Irresponsible self-medication not only negatively impacts patient’s health, it contributes to much far reaching and large scale phenomena like entire populations and future generations becoming drug resistant, and multidrug resistant strains of microbes getting developed.
As is popularly known, medications are substances/drugs used for treating diseases and maintaining health. Drugs may either be prescription or nonprescription drugs. Prescription drugs require a physician’s prescription before they can be purchased and a major example is antibiotics. On the other hand, nonprescription drugs (also known as over-the-counter drugs) don’t require a prescription before they can be purchased, for example, paracetamol, vitamins and cough preparations. Purchasing prescription and non-prescription drugs are both considered as self-medication, if they have not been prescribed by a physician for that particular illness as there might be cases when people use leftover medicines from previous similar illness.
There can be several adverse effects of such self-medications. Some of the prominent ones are listed below:
- The use of antibiotics without a due prescription from a physician can be considered as irrational drug use and is a major risk factor for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance especially in developing countries like India.
- Most surveys worldwide have shown that over 50 per cent of parents self-medicate their children irrespective of socioeconomic status, level of education and geographic location. Such indiscriminate actions often times lead to complications and increased mortality among children. Self-medication practices might in fact be contributing to growing cases of allergies, respiratory conditions and other developmental disorders among children in their formative years of life.
- Other dangers associated with self-medication include contraindications, side effects and allergic reactions.
- Over dependence on medicines for every ache and pain leads to chronic weakening of organs like kidney, liver and other systems. Several drugs have complications related to long term use which only a physician can regulate by prescribing required dosage and duration of treatment.
- A major concern related to self-medication is the growing drug dependence and addiction that is hollowing entire generations of youngsters in several countries. Drugs like Xanax and other similar compounds are reported to be highly misused due to their addictive properties that disrupt families and entire societies.
- Another dangerous trend that people need to be careful about is the use of herbs: Although herbs are said to be harmless, some can be potentially dangerous, especially to people taking medication. Natural medicine may have significant toxicity, and the safety of combining natural remedies with conventional medical therapy has not been well studied, hence the need for caution before listening to friends or information from unofficial websites singing praises about the benefits of certain herbs.
Self-medication practice is an epidemic that is spreading its tentacles slowly but surely, and its consequences hold grave threat for humankind at present as well as much farther into the future. It is high time people take responsibility for their actions and refrain from irresponsible self-medication to oneself or others.
Awareness about medicines is something that is needed to allow people make informed decisions regarding self-medication. Living in this age of information and internet can prove to be a boon if people use the technology wisely rather than blindly following every “medical” advice on social media platforms like facebook and whatsapp. Let us refrain from irresponsible self-medication for the sake of healthier and stronger future generations of humankind that will live harmoniously with the beautiful resources that nature has so kindly bestowed upon us.
