Why you are better off without self-medication
There is a running joke: in Nigeria, everyone is a physician-from your mother and neighbour to the apprentice at your chemist and the hawkster with a cartonload of drugs on his head. Many have a penchant to rush out for a drug for just any ailment on the strength of anecdotal evidence. Drug companies are […]
There is a running joke: in Nigeria, everyone is a physician-from your mother and neighbour to the apprentice at your chemist and the hawkster with a cartonload of drugs on his head.
Many have a penchant to rush out for a drug for just any ailment on the strength of anecdotal evidence. Drug companies are falling over themselves to fill the demand. Supplement makers aren’t left out.
Pharmaceutical companies pay huge money to show families how a mother’s love is complete only when she administers their brand of antimalaria medicine or how a particular analgesic (pain killer) leaves headaches high and dry. The end-second warning to see your doctor if symptoms persist after two days just isn’t doing anything.
Reaching for a first-line medicine isn’t necessarily bad, to some. It may be the first aid you need, but you have to know where to draw the line.
Habeeb Muazu [not real name] got a near-death fright when he was taken ill at boarding school in May. Administrators at the sick bay decided he had malaria and dosed him on an antimalaria drug. What they didn’t know-and his parents too-was the 13-year-old wasn’t good at handling sulphur, contained in the drug.
“They called us to come immediately and take him,” his father recalls. The boy’s face was distorted, eyes swollen shut, lips puffed out, he couldn’t eat. It was a close shave with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.
The school later owned up about what drug it had administered.
Weeks later, the swelling has reduced enough for Muazu to eat and talk, and attend clinic as an outpatient at Kubwa General Hospital in Abuja.
A study among university students found females were likely to self medicate than males-and the practice is more prevalent among 25-to-44-year-olds in general.
Antibiotics and antimalarials are the most used, researchers behind the study reported in the Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research.
Getting hold of the drugs is quite easy. Nearly half the study population got their drug of choice at a patent medicine store; three out of 25 got from a friend; six in 20 got from a community pharmacy. Seven percent of the respondents got their drugs from a relative. And three in 100 used drugs left over from previous prescriptions.
Regulators are still battling to evaluate and register drugs, foods and supplements, but they are springing up faster than regulators can manage.
Many branded as supplements are sold without passing through national food regulators.
One is sold under the brand name OmegaRx2, a double strength dose of omega-3 fish oil that claims to boost everything from heart health and brain function to vision and athletic performance. It even adds ability to rejuvenate your cells and regulate mood or behaviour.
It ships in dollars but National Agency for Food and Drug Regulation and Control hasn’t stamped any approval number on its label.
The maker Zone Labs says claims on its website “have not been evaluated’ by the US Food and Drug Administration and its products “are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.”
“Individual results may vary. Information contained within our blogs are not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult your physician.”
Bottomline is when you pop that pill by yourself, you risk many things all at once, suggests Maria Ruiz, in her journal article on the US National Library of Medicine.
• 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
• risk of dependence and abuse.