We all played doctor at least once, but how safe is it to self-medicate? Speak Up examines dangers of letting you double up as doctor.
We all have played doctor at least once but how safe is it to self-medicate. Speak Up examines the dangers of letting the chemist, the neighbour or worse still, yourself double up as doctor.
‘You can’t use the same prescription to cure the neighbourhood’
Dr Amit Bajaj
The concept of drug abuse includes not only banned narcotics but also everyday use medicines. The most commonly abused prescription drugs fall into three classes:
Opioids
Examples: Oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine
Medical uses: Opioids are used to treat pain or relieve cough or diarrhoea.
How they work: Opioids attach to opioid receptors in the central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord), preventing the brain from receiving pain messages.
Central Nervous System (CNS) Depressants
Examples: Phenobarbital sodium, diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam.
Medical uses: CNS depressants are used to treat anxiety, tension, panic attacks, and sleep disorders.
How they work: CNS depressants slow down brain activity by increasing the activity of a neurotransmitter called GABA. The result is a drowsy or calming effect.
Stimulants
Examples: Methylphenidate, amphetamine/dextroamphetamine.
Medical uses: Stimulants can be used to treat narcolepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, obesity, and asthma.
How they work: Stimulants increase brain activity, resulting in greater alertness, attention, and energy.
Over-the-Counter Drugs
Some people mistakenly think that prescription drugs are more powerful because you need a prescription for them. But it's possible to abuse or become addicted to over-the-counter (OTC) medications, too.
For example, dextromethorphan is found in some OTC cough medicines. When someone takes the right dosage, everything is fine. But high doses can cause problems with the senses (especially vision and hearing) and can lead to confusion, stomach pain, numbness, and even hallucinations.
Abuse of prescription drugs is rampant. I had prescribed an anti-allergen to a patient for his cold. The medicine did its job and the patient decided to give it to his two-year-old son and the poor child ended up in hospital due to difficulty in breathing.
Another 16-year-old was brought to me with acute asthma. He had been given diclofenac, a pain killer, in large doses to control his ankle pain but it had aggravated his previously controlled asthma and brought about this attack. This is a typical example of ignorance-induced drug abuse.
Some individuals are given medication for a fever they had for two days, but decide to use the same medication for every fever they get or for that matter any fever in their family or neighbourhood. There are more than 100 different causes for fever and these money-saving tactics only harm people.
There is another group of people who believe that the chemist is as good as a doctor and blindly take anything he gives them for common ailments and end up with all kind sorts of complications because chemists ignore drug allergies and other factors.
The internet revolution has given rise to a new menace of online doctors, so to say, who are computer-savvy people who think they can search a disease and its cure on the internet and treat their whole family with internet search results.
The Pill-lover’s Favourites
Pain killers
Sleeping pills
Anti-anxiety medications
Cough suppressants with codeine
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