How Self-Prescribed Medications Can Kill You

In this post, we will be discussing how self-prescribed medications can kill you if not used properly. The term “self-prescribed medication” could be defined as the identification and use of medicines or drugs by an individual in order to treat self-identified or self-diagnosed disease conditions or symptoms. This is different from self medication. Self medication is referred to as an area of healthcare whereby the patient takes on a greater degree of responsibility for the treatment of a minor ailment, using pharmaceutical products that are often available without a physician’s or doctor’s prescription.

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A growing number of former “prescription-only” medical products are now available over-the-counter in many pharmacies and retail outlets all over the country, thus widening the range and extent of accessibility of these products to the common populace. However, self-prescribed medication remains far from being a safe medical practice, both in theory or in practice, a person who’s not trained shouldn’t do the prescribing, assumption of a symptom’s disease is not the same as medical diagnosis.

According to helpguide article, the involvement of pharmacists provides an opportunity to increase the pharmacy profession’s participation in the management of minor illnesses, thereby reducing the burden of unnecessary or avoidable physician appointments. Thereby, reducing the risks of you actually finding out how self-prescribed medications can kill you.

How Self-Prescribed Medications Can Kill You

In Nigeria, a typical medical student spends at least 6 years in school before his/her medical practice, some 7 years. A question I do have for self-medication practitioners is: how do you collapse 6 to 7 years of training into one (1) and expect to not make mistakes in your “practice”? Ideally, self medication ought to be for the management of minor or common illnesses, in pursuit of your pharmacist prescription and not one’s assumptions. Some risks involved in self-prescribed medication include:

Medical Case Misdiagnosis

According to the justia article, A misdiagnosis case could be a wrong diagnosis, a missed diagnosis, a delayed diagnosis, or a failure to recognize complications that change or aggravate an existing condition. It is said that sometimes a doctor diagnoses one condition correctly but misdiagnoses another condition or fails to realize that there is a second diagnosis that needs to be made. Consider this: if a medical professional can make this error, how much more can a layperson?

Excessive/Improper Drug Dosage

Experts ascribe these to pharmaceutical malpractice, but not when it is done by an unprofessional patient or person. Prescription errors can result in serious injury and death. A person can prescribe an incorrect dose and these errors can result in serious health complications, including allergic reactions, organ damage caused by an overdose, infection, stroke, heart failure, and even death. Even medical doctors and pharmacists must follow strict regulations in order to prevent mistakes. Excessive or improper drug dosage is another way how self-prescribed medications can kill you.

Unhealthy Extended Drug Usage

Long-term drug use can have serious effects of drugs on the body. Chronic abuse can lead to a variety of problems and diseases. This can be the result of unhealthy and extended drug or pill usage. It is advised to always follow the directives of a licensed medical expert.

Unsafe Drug Interactions.

It is very much advised by medical doctors and practitioners in the medical field to restrict patients and people with unverified health symptoms until the underlining causes are well known. The unsafe interaction between yourself and unsupervised drugs can kill you.

CONCLUSION

Parts of the body that suffer due to the effects of these risks are often the heart (which is the engine of the body), the kidney, and the liver, Knowing the number of deaths due to drug overdose and abuse is heartbreaking. More on the needless to say. Self-prescribed medication can easily put one in danger of death, but thankfully and hopefully, you now know better by reading this How Self-Prescribed Medications can kill you post.

References Sources

1. Ruiz M. E. (2010). Risks of self-medication practices. Current drug safety, 5(4), 315–323.
2. Hughes, C. M., McElnay, J. C., & Fleming, G. F. (2001). Benefits and risks of self medication. Drug safety, 24(14), 1027–1037.