Dangers Of Self-Medication

Drugs are poisons and it's the dose which decides whether it will have a therapeutic effect or a poisonous effect on your body. Drugs are to be handled with utmost care, otherwise it can lead to many health hazards.

It has become a day to day habit among people to take medicines themselves without consulting a doctor. This habit of self-medication can be fatal and may even cost you your life. If you don't have knowledge of medicines and not related to a medical profession then you should never take medicines by your own.

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Few drugs that are mostly overused are painkillers, antacids and antibiotics. If you decide totake antibiotics for any infection without a prescription, and not knowing which type of bacteria you are infected with, then there are chances that the bacteria will develop resistantance to the antibiotics.

Similarly, there are many other health hazards of self-medication which we will share with you. Have a look at some of the harmful effects of self-medication.

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Liver Damage

All the drugs that you take, go the liver as a part of our metabolism, so there is a huge load on liver to process these drugs. Paracetamol is one such drug that can cause severe liver damage. While processing this drug, metabolites are produced that invade the liver. If you already have a liver disease then avoid having acetaminophen.

Kidney Damage

Drugs go to the kidneys for their excretion through urine once they finish their action in the body. Many drugs when taken without the consultation of a doctor can cause kidney damage. An example of such a drug is nimesulide which causes kidney bleeding. This is one of the harmful effects of self-medication.

Anaphylactic Shock

This is a severe allergic reaction to a drug. Some people react to drugs in a different manner than normal. They show severe reaction some particular drugs resulting in drug allergy. Symptoms include increased heart rate, reduced blood pressure, severe weakness, shock and unconsciousness which can ultimately lead to death.

Drug Interaction

If you are already on a particular medication and then you opt to have another one without consulting a doctor, chances are that they may render your prescription medication ineffective. As one drug may decrease or even increase the effect of other drugs. So be careful while having another drug.

Contraindication

Self-medication may increase the severity of your underlying diseases. For example if you are diabetic and then you take steroidal drugs to treat inflammation or pain then this drug may worsen your diabetes. So always ask a doctor before taking any medication. This is one among the negative effects of self-medication.

Tolerance

If you start taking anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives (sleeping pills) by yourself then you will have to increase the dose as the initial dose of the sleeping pills you used to take will turn ineffective for you gradually. A time will come when you will take many tablets together and still your body will not show any response as you have become tolerant to these drugs. So drugs should never be taken without medical supervision.

Drug Resistance

Nowadays bacterial resistance to antibiotics has become a common problem. Almost all bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. If you take antibiotics by yourself without knowing what kind of infections have invaded you, then these bacteria will remain in your body and grow resistant to the drug.