Health: Dangers of Self-Medication

 Adesewa Akinnawo

Every day we  practice self medication in the form of self care of our health. Around the 1960s in the west, self-care and self-medication was regarded as unnecessary and potentially even unhealthy pratices. This paternalistic approach to medicine, supported by health systems designed to treat sickness remains a familiar aspect of health care in many countries to this day.

Self medication has traditionally been defined as the taking of drugs, herbs  and home remedies on one's own initiative, or on the advice of another person without consulting a doctor ,, families, friends, neighbors, the pharmacist, previous prescribed drugs or suggestions from an advertisement in newspaper or magazines are common sources of self medication.

Some governments are increasingly encouraging self-care of minor illnesses including self medication. Although responsible self-medication help to reduce the cost of treatment, travelling time as well as doctors time i.e consultation time while the insignificant ones could damage the organs in the body and even helps in developing hiding bacteria or virus, self-medication is very common and often happen in our environment and a number of  reasons could be enumerated for it.

Urge for self care, feeling of sympathy towards family members in sickness, lack of time, lack of health services, financial constraint, ignorance, disbelief,, extensive advertisement and availability of drugs in other than drug shop are responsible for growing trend of self-medication in Nigeria.

Today, these drugs are mostly sold by the roadside and by hawkers self-medication might seem right at first, ,but one needs to consider the potential side effects of such uninformed actions, it can lead to drug addiction, allergies,, worsening of ailment, incorrect diagnosis and dosage or even disability and pre mature death this is the reason why people must avoid self-medication at all cost.

A point to note is that the pharmacists also play a huge role in the issue of self-medication. In a haste to make lot of money some pharmacists encourage people to buy their drugs without a doctor's prescription. And in some cases they even prescribe drugs for their customers. This is wrong because the pharmacist is charged with the duty of dispensing drugs. It is the doctor who prescribes these drugs.

The government and other regulatory bodies should supervise the sale of drugs by the wrong people in the country. They should ensure that they confiscate any drug sold on the roadside or by hawkers. The victims of  self-medication should make use of remedies like: self motivation, rehabilitation, seeking help from people around, consulting a doctor, and learning from other people's mistake; including learning to contact medical practitioners.