Self medication is the common practice among people in the community ,this five minute reads tries to breakdown its meaning and impact in the long run.

What is self medication

Self medication is an act of self prescribing and consuming medication guided by one’s view on his or her health condition without an advice from a physician commonly practiced in our communities. This behavior has been taken as a normal practice especially for health problems such as headache, fever, sore throat, gastrointestinal problems, skin disorders, respiratory problems to mention a few.

Why do people self medicate?

The main reason of self medication is an easy access of medications whenever one feels sick, Other reasons includes, The medicine knowledge by some people may cause them to think they know what to use even when the important examinations and tests have not been done to reach the diagnosis, The use of same medications whenever the condition seems to be similar to the previous one, Inability to access the service at the hospital settings due to poverty and sometimes the time taken to access the care at the hospital is very long making people finding shortcuts for their treatment

Yes, someone may take a certain medication and get a relief of the condition but this does not justify that the practice is not harmful, This is because some conditions may be self limiting (have an ability to heal without medication meaning that the immunity takes care of it), Sometimes the medication actually takes care of the condition by chance.

Why self medication is not good?

Medications are poisons especially when they are not used as intended interms of indications and dosage, Taking underdose or overdose of a certain medicine has a large impact on health that may be seen immediately or after sometime, For example the normal practice of taking antibiotics whenever someone feels sick can result into antimicrobial resistance that is ability of a microbe to resist the antibiotic effect that was initially present therefore the microbe survives even when the antibiotic is used.

Adverse drug reactions may also occur and risk someone’s health and life in general

What to do?

People should understand that their health is their responsibilities that no one will take care of your health as you do and the impact of self medication may cost large sum of money and even one’s life. Careful considerations should be taken whenever someone feels sick by having a conversation with a physician for diagnosis and treatment as well as adhering to the medications as prescribed for an effective and efficient treatment.

Also the outlets that provides pharmaceutical services should adhere to laws and regulations especially on avoiding dispensing prescription only medicines without a prescription and also using the pharmacy knowledge to make people understand very well about the medicines they use. 

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