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Lifestyle and Diet
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
The self-medication and the inappropriate prescription of drugs can be harmful to health in the short and long term. Remember that any medicine has side effects on the body. The intensity of these side effects varies depending on the drug, its dose, its duration of use, its association with other drugs or supplements, and the patient’s state. Only a doctor and or pharmacist can give you necessary information about the pharmacological properties and side effects of each drug. They may also assess the benefits and risks of each drug in the treatment of a disease. Many problems concerning the risks of some drugs have been cited in the recent literature.
Self-medication versus consultation
Published in Carine Baxerres, Maurice Cassier, Understanding Drugs Markets, 2021
Carine Baxerres, Kelley Sams, Roch Appolinaire Houngnihin, Daniel Kojo Arhinful, Jean-Yves Le
The second is the concept of autonomy, a basic definition that highlights “the capacity to think, decide, and act on the basis of such thought and decision freely and independently and without let or hindrance” (Gillon, 1985, p. 1806). Here again, institutional and social supports must be incorporated when analyzing autonomy with regard to health issues. The concept of autonomy and medication use has been researched extensively in relation to the issue of self-medication, the subject of several studies in France in recent years (cited throughout in this chapter), a country with its pharmaceutical monopoly under pressure from the European economic community (see Chapter 3). Self-medication may be defined narrowly (the use without a prescription of commercial specialty products to treat a health issue) or broadly (the use of any existing health products, or even health-care practices, including “prescriptions” written by other actors—from social circles or distribution or care facilities that are not legally authorized to do so—as well as “disguised self-medication,” when the patient asks his or her doctor to include specific products on the prescription) (Brutus et al., 2017; Bureau-Point, Baxerres, & Chheang, 2020; Fainzang, 2012; Moloney, 2017). We consider self-medication by individuals to be the use of health products without the supervision of a professional who individuals recognize as being able to “prescribe,” whether or not that person is actually authorized to do so.
Drugs and health
Published in Sally Robinson, Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health, 2021
Additional concerns about self-medication include it is fuelling the world antibiotic-resistance crisisusing medications to deal with symptoms rather than underlying problems, such as the causes of anxiety or painunwanted side effectsnon-optimal treatmentincreased drug useaccess by vulnerable people who may need special advicepoisoning(Mahmood et al., 2019; Perrot et al., 2019; Torres et al., 2019; Rodrigues, 2020)
Self-medication Behavior with antibiotics: a national cross-sectional survey in Sri Lanka
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2021
Shukry Zawahir, Sarath Lekamwasam, Kjell H. Halvorsen, Grenville Rose, Parisa Aslani
Self-medication behavior reflects the wish of individuals to take responsibility for their own health and treat minor ailments. Some of the benefits of appropriate self-medication include decreased healthcare costs, decreased physician consultations, and therefore, increased availability of healthcare workers for people with more urgent needs [43]. However, inappropriate behavior, especially with antibiotics, could result in potential individual harm, such as, worsening of health condition due to incorrect self-diagnosis and wrong choice of therapy. However, even more importantly, such unwanted behavior could promote the development of ABR [7,8]. A substantial proportion of the respondents in our study inappropriately self-medicated with antibiotics, which is comparable with studies conducted in other developed and developing countries [3,4].
Adolescents’ misperceptions and low literacy associated with the inappropriate use of over-the-counter cold medicines
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2020
Tzu-Chueh Wang, Fong-Ching Chang, Chun-Hsien Lee, Hsueh-Yun Chi, Li-Jung Huang, Chie-Chien Tseng
This study found that more than one quarter of adolescents who had taken OTC cold medicine in the previous year had taken an amount of medicine that was counter to the drug label/instructions, and about one-tenth had taken two or more types of cold medicine simultaneously. Prior studies showed that inappropriate self-medication is highly prevalent and results in mistakes such as ignoring the labeling of medicine, taking two or more types of analgesics, and exceeding the maximum daily recommended dosage (Gualano et al., 2015) . These results implied that school medication education should be strengthened to reduce inappropriate OTC use and potential risks. Governments should monitor the prevalence and patterns of inappropriate OTC use and the incidence of adverse drug reactions among different subgroups (i.e., age and socioeconomic groups).
Carbohydrate-derived fulvic acid wellness drink: its tolerability, safety and effect on disease markers in pre-ART HIV-1 positive subjects
Published in South African Family Practice, 2018
ME Botes, IS Gilada, JR Snyman, JPL Labuschagne
Preserving patients’ health in this pre-ART phase through safe self-care and reducing the need to commence ART would impact significantly on the treatment burden of the pandemic. The pre-ART phase is defined as the period of time before ART is started.12–16 It is especially during this phase that HIV-1 positive patients often self-medicate by using vitamins or ‘tonics’ to enhance well-being.1,2 It is recognised that many patients use self-medication products because it is often easier, more cost- or time-efficient or they believe their situation does not merit a visit to a clinician.17,18 There is evidence that patients can and do practise self-medication responsibly, respect non-prescription medicines and do read package inserts. It was stated by the World Health Organization (WHO)18 that there is general recognition that self-care is undoubtedly the primary resource of any healthcare system.