Understanding Self-medication and its Effects

Understanding Self-medication and its Effects

Definition

The term self-medication is broad but to put it very simple self-medication is the individual selection and the use of pharmaceutical agents for a self-diagnosed condition an example is me having pain or fever and then I straight hours think it's malaria. Then I go to a small drug outlet and I buy cotton and I treat that condition that I have as malaria that's what you call self-medication.

First aid and Self-Medication

First aid is the emergence use of drugs for a symptom of an injury sustained before the full proper treatment is given.

The keywords there is the emergence and it's in our anticipation that after a few minutes or hours you're going to get the full treatment while self-medication is the use of drugs without knowing which condition you're treating and for whichever time that you might want now. Self-medication versus first aid once you do first aid for a particular condition. For example, I’ll give you an example sometimes when you're doing first aid, it can end up in self-medication. I have a headache I take my painkillers today, they might work and after they had gone away I may think I don't need to see a doctor. So the next day the same pain comes back I take the painkiller again so emergency treatment now becomes self-medication but ideally, first aid should be given. First of all, there is a time limit to its emergence but also that very moment in anticipation to see a doctor or get the full treatment. First aid can be given both in hospital and at home and that's the difference while self-medication is entirely someone somewhere who takes a drug for a condition they think they are treating which may not be having our viewers there need to know that self-medication is very dangerous in the view that these are pharmaceutical agents but they also have potential side defects now because you are self-diagnosing chances are high you'd be taking the wrong drug for the wrong diagnosis now all the drugs we use have side effects but we usually wear the benefits versus side effects now if you're taking a drug for a condition that you do not have that means after the side effects are going to come out boldly and they will be significant. There is a chance that if you're self-medicating you could delay seeking the right treatment because I have a fever I both caught him I’m thinking I need to give it time to work and yet possibly so what I’m treating is something completely different. We've also seen cases of wrong administration of drugs because you're self-medicating.

 I had a situation where someone gave the drugs through the vein, but you've also seen a number of them giving the drug through the nose. The ways of administration are very clear so if you're self-medicating at home chances are you may actually give a drug wrongly. There is a high likelihood that you may actually give the wrong dose. I do not know out there how many people know apart from the simple drugs. How many people know especially for the children if I’m giving an antibiotic for a cough that I think the child needs to get an antibiotic for how many meals and how many milligrams am I supposed to give a particular age. So because of self-medication many times we end up giving the wrong doses. Now the results risk of giving unmasking rather than masking symptoms and signs of very severe disease. I’ll give an example you have acute abdominal pain for which you take painkillers someone may treat it as an acute hepatics disease. So you keep taking these drugs on top of that you're taking painkillers but what if you're actually masking symptoms from cancer whenever you self-medicate without having an expert opinion from a doctor there is a chance that you may present to the hospital it is because all the signs and symptoms that might have been clear for this condition have actually been covered by the painkiller that you've taken. Now not forgetting adverse drug reactions most of the drugs have side effects but we also know some individuals are allergic to particular components in these drugs. I’ll give an example many people know they are allergic to penicillin. So they know I shouldn't take penicillin but how many of these who allow you to polish insulins know which particular drug categories fall under penicillin you get it. An antibiotic that falls in the same class of the drug you know you're allergic to but because you're not aware you take the drug then the other thing is drug-to-drug interactions and some of these are fatal that I’m taking the drug but because I’m taking the drug I shouldn't take the drug.

So I’m a non-hypertensive taking particular medicines possible I’m also taking drugs that prevent clotting and all that so I go to a pharmacy to buy a drug a pinnacle or something a headache or something completely different. Now this drug is going to directly interact with the other drugs that I’m taking and eventually the outcome could be shattered. So these are some of the poor outcomes or the things that we can end up getting when we choose to self-medicate.

Remedies

Remedies are there a form of self-medication. I would say yes and no, I just said previously covered has actually been approved and added onto the drug list that I can use to be able to manage covid 19 and it's a hub. Not only that there are also other Hubble drugs we actually use in hospitals for managing particular conditions. So if you come and see who prescribes a herbal drug that has been packaged well with a clear active ingredient and a clear dose dosage that is not self-medication. However, if you are back home and you get a headache or you get a fever or if you get any form of cough or flu and you quickly say this is probably 19 and you go to the bush and possibly pick herbs abc to mix them together boil them together use them in any way that is self-medication.

·         You're not sure that you actually have covid 19.

·         You're not sure how much of this active ingredient you're actually taking.

·         You are known to look taking into account the possible side effects and possibly the interactions with other drugs that you're taking.

Maybe the other thing that I shouldn't forget about the bad issues that we get from self-medication is drug dependence. People that have chronic pains that choose to take painkillers for a long time realize that their pain threshold keeps increasing as time goes on. So someone who was able to kill their pain with a gas furnace after some time they are not able to. So they keep going up the ladder and before you know you are reaching the range of drugs that can cause addiction. So even when the pain is away you realize that you constantly need this drug for your day-to-day living. Possibly you can't sleep without this drug and eventually you are landing into a clear definition of drug addiction.

In the era of covid 19 again we've seen a number of drugs being abused and self-medicated one of course is vitamin c. We've seen people abusing painkillers and self-medicating on painkillers. We've seen people self-medicating on vitamin d and many other drugs and antibiotics. These are good drugs and we actually use them for the management of covid 19 but these are not generic drugs that we should use for each and every patient. In fact, drug A may not miss a particular person’s patient and B is safe but people are getting a cocktail of all these drugs put together and they begin taking. For example, right from the start of the pandemic they're actually people that have been taking daily vitamin c up to now you get it but does vitamin c have side effects. Yes, does one you can actually get kidney stones because of excessive formation of uric acid and oxalic stones you can end up with kidney stones from vitamin c too. It actually interferes with the absorption of other mineral elements vitamin B12 and copper. So because of this, you end up with another condition affecting brain function and all that because you're excessively taking vitamin c. Vitamins themselves enhance the absorption of iron in the body and usually for people that are dynamic if we are giving them an iron supplement we add on vitamin c but in this case, you are taking a lot of vitamins which is going to enhance the absorption a lot of iron. So eventually you're going to end up with a lot of iron in your body that may actually end up staining most of your organs because you have excess iron so this also becomes a problem when people take drugs without you knowing the proper prescription for a long time it becomes a challenge so that is vitamin c um we've also had uh people abusing dexamethasone I’m sure you've heard about that drug, okay so it's not that every covid 19 patients should actually get dexamethasone. We've seen people getting high blood pressure from this drug we've seen people who have been diabetics stable they take this drug their blood sugar goes out of control so these are things that can easily be sorted out when you go and pick your drugs from the doctor however when you choose to just buy these drugs out there because you saw someone else using the same drug it becomes a challenge three and possibly the most important in covid19 is there are the diseases this is a viral infection and ideally, we should be able to give chance for our bodies to fight this infection now when you take a steroid the story is going to impair the capacity of your body to fight these organisms. So it's literally extending the progression of the disease instead of the disease spending possibly. Three four five days with acute symptoms it's going to take you two or three weeks with acute symptoms because you're impairing the capacity of your body to fight this then the other drugs that have also been self-medicated during covid are antibiotics. Azithromycin, amoxicillin, calamox and all that and it's known that every covid positive patient needs antibiotics. In fact, the people that need antibiotics are possibly people that have developed secondary bacterial infections because of the virus but we need to know this is a viral infection where antibiotics do not have a role. It's only your doctor that can be able to tell and justify that at this level you need antibiotics. Now a covid 19 positive patient is someone who is actually at risk of ending up in hospital with more severe secondary bacterial infections and therefore they will need antibiotic treatment. If you're someone who has been taking medicine of its own at home, you may reach in hospital and realize that majority of the drugs we might use are no longer able to work on you because of resistance. This is not a problem only for you but drug resistance is on the increase and it's being driven by people who just walk into a drug shop to buy drugs and use them. Of course, the other effect of excessive use of antibiotics not prescribed by doctors is you can actually pick up a medical condition out of excessive use of antibiotics.

GOD has made our bodies in such a way that the particular organisms he has put in us and these organisms are normal where they are so their presence actually protects our bodies. So once you take these antibacterial agents they are killing the pathogens possibly that are there but they are also killing the normal organisms you need. So the end result is your body is left unprotected so because of it you've seen people getting recurrent UTIs and leader infections there are forms of diarrhea that are closely associated with antibiotic use called clostridium deficient that could actually be fetal. So it's not something as simple as I’ve just used an antibiotic and the effects could actually be cut eventually.

We've had herbal remedies since time memory possibly since the creation of earth our onset stars have used herbal remedies for the treatment of bacterial infections, viral infections and various other conditions also to note that even the drugs we use currently are all good from natural naturally existing plants. So it's true most of these plants could actually be having active ingredients to work on particular diseases. However, this is where the problem is when you choose to use a hub parameter at the same time you're using a drug from the hospital you actually don't know what is in the suburban.

So we are worried about these things:

One of them is a drug-to-drug interaction this hub may render the drug you're taking inactive or may actually render it poisonous. The concentration of that particular drug may increase in blood so eventually, you end up with a drug-to-drug interaction.

Two this Hubble drug may actually render this drug inactive that you need the higher doses of the drug to be able to use it to give you the same effect that you desire. When you are not on these harms.

Conclusion

When you self-medicate there are a lot of drug regularities that happen when you choose to medicate we've seen most of these patients end up into drug addictions or we've actually seen most of these patients presenting let's in the case of covid 19 management because they're thinking they are taking a drug that is treating the condition they have only to reach hospital when it's too late my emphasize here. If you're taking a drug as a first aid it should not be repetitive take it today goes and see a doctor the act of thinking the fever you have is malaria or treating every fever you get as malaria is wrong. It saves a lot of time, saves a lot of money. Go to your doctor let you find out what problem you have and you will be in a position to prescribe the right medication.

 

Thank you