Self-medication is a dangerous practice which needs to be addressed at every possible forum. It is a known fact that medicines are nothing but a set of chemicals combined to treat diseases. Medicines thus are designed to treat diseases based on proper diagnosis and tests recommended by medical practioners. Self-medication or online advice, however, has gained alarming proportion. So much so that symptoms of self therapy and their outcome have come under examination of some doctors, who admit that they ask the visiting patients if they were taking any self prescribed medicines or some online advice, to assess the exact status of their disease.
An expatriate, who preferred not to be named, admitted that two years ago he started taking medicines for his acute headache as per matching symptoms online. “The headache prolonged with some relief under the impact of pain killers, but I developed severe pain in my stomach. By the time I reached a doctor, I was having severe pain in stomach and ended up undergoing several tests and treatment of stomach instead of headache.
“The doctor told me plainly that I should not have taken medicine without prescription and consultation from a doctor because it was some minor ailment which was causing headache. It would have been easily treated in one or two sittings and would have been much cheaper also,” he said.
The doctors admit that the Internet is full of information but not advisable for an individual without any medicine background to go for self medication based on online advice. “Based on our knowledge in medicine we have ability to cross-check as to what is there online. But if a layman in medicine tries self medication, it may become very serious,” said a doctor working in a private hospital.
SAFE TREATMENT
He put thrust on clinical examination as symptoms for many diseases are very close. “Even as practicing doctors we have to take final call on medicines based on clinical examination,” he said. Similarly, Dr Faiza al Raaie, a Senior Dermatology Consultant in Ministry of Health, and a visiting consultant at a private hospital, cautioned young girls to consult a dermatologist before undergoing any self medication for skin treatment, particularly those involving toning of the skin. She called for using safe cosmetics keeping in mind that the skin which an individual gets by birth is normal, natural and most beautiful. One should not mess with this natural thing unless there is some abnormality and treatment is required.
Many research suggest that self-medication even in acute diseases is prevalent mainly among college going students due to their over dependence on mobile phones and a feeling that they can save money by taking help of some apps that suggest cure for diseases.
“I do not deny the fact that some of those apps may be useful, but I fully disagree with any medication without clinical examination. Medicine is a vast science where researches and updates keep on happening and in this age of Internet there are many vested interests that do not have any responsibility if anything goes wrong with the patient. I strongly recommend patients to see a doctor before taking any medicine,” said another doctor.
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