Side effects of self-medication

Thus elf-medication is defined as “the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, or the intermittent or continued use of a prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms”.  Drug dependent individuals generally experience more psychiatric distress than non-drug dependent individuals, and the development of drug dependence involves the gradual incorporation of […]

Thus elf-medication is defined as “the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, or the intermittent or continued use of a prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms”.  Drug dependent individuals generally experience more psychiatric distress than non-drug dependent individuals, and the development of drug dependence involves the gradual incorporation of the drug effects and the need to sustain these effects into the defensive structure-building activity of the ego itself.
The addict’s choice of drug is a result of the interaction between the psychopharmacologic properties of the drug and the affective states from which the addict was seeking relief. The drug’s effects substitute for defective or non-existent ego mechanisms of defence. The addict’s drug of choice, therefore, is not random.
The individual’s drug of choice is determined through experimentation, whereby the interaction of the main effects of the drug, the individual’s inner psychological turmoil, and underlying personality traits identify the drug that produces the desired effects.
A crucial determinant of whether a drug user develops drug abuse is the presence or absence of negative reinforcement, which is experienced by problematic users, but not by recreational users.
Depression is often self-medicated with alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or other mind-altering drug use. While this may provide immediate relief of some symptoms such as anxiety, it may evoke and/or exacerbate some symptoms of several kinds of mental illnesses that are already latently present, and may lead to addiction/ dependence, among other side effects of long-term use of the drug.
Self-medicating excessively for prolon-ged periods of time with benzodiazepines or alcohol often makes the symptoms of anxiety or depression worse. This is believed to occur as a result of the changes in brain chemistry from long-term use.
A person suffering the toxic effects of alcohol will not benefit from other therapies or medications, as these do not address the root cause of the symptoms.
Similarly cough remedies, anti-allergies, laxatives, vitamins, tonics, and antacids can lead to serious side effects. Even lavish use of vitamins, especially the fat-soluble (A, D, E, &K) can cause problems.
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.
 As a solution to the self medication problem of rural Africa, government should raise the level of healthcare in rural communities to the existing levels in urban centres through adequate budgetary provision for about 15 to 20 years. Secondly, they should be a conscious and honest effort by government to carry out poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas. This can naturally remove barriers to accessibility to healthcare services and eventually weaken the traditional folk medication with anything that has no medical value. Thirdly, effective education programme of the rural communities will help determine their health utilization and the dangers of self medication.

Hauwa Isyaku Dantsoho, Mass Communication Department, IBB University, Lapai, Niger State