THE ENEMY CALLED PAIN AND THE SISTER SELF MEDICATION

   When pain comes, you cry and you try. Your head pounds and you try. Your head pounds, there is a sound. It whispers slowly to you “Take the pill and be chill’’. That is the genesis of the epidemic that has eaten deep into our system. The new norm called SELF MEDICATION

    At one point in our lives, we have self medicated without even knowing! Drugs are abused on a daily basis and the story always ends with regret

   Some weeks back, a patient took her diabetic medication while fasting and she was rushed to the pharmacy where I work. She was so weak! The pharmacist wanted to help. He was so worried and told them to rush her to the teaching hospital but she was taken to a ‘quack’ who poses as a nurse some streets away.  I called the next day to inquire about her condition and I was told that she was no more! It was very obvious that the lady did not know the importance of regularly checking her blood sugar level and did not also inform her physician that she was fasting. This also happens when you are hypertensive and do not check your blood pressure regularly but you keep taking anti-hypertensive medication

   In our society today, there are a lot of things we do without knowing the repercussions that emanate. They are enumerated and elucidated below.

v    Not completing given dose when we are sick; most people do not complete the dose of the drugs given because they feel better after a while. Most antibiotic drugs need to be taken for a minimum of five days this ensures that the organism does not form any kind of resistance to the drug. Most people in Nigeria take antibiotics like ‘ampiclox’, ‘lincomycin’ and others and abuse these drugs so much and this has caused a lot of damages to the people who engage in this behavior

v Searching for symptoms and seeking solutions online; most people go online and check the symptoms they have and try to read about them. Most of the people who do this, do not suffer from the problems and go ahead to take these drugs and because of the bad dispensing rules in Africa, they consume these drugs without even taking the proper dosage. Someone once took ‘ketoconazole’ for the wrong ailment and took it for an extended period until he had a liver problem. He was asked why he was taking them and he said that he saw the drug online.

v Addiction to substances; most people are really addicted to substances and drugs without knowing the repercussion that arises when you constantly take these drugs. Codeine, tramadol, rohypnol, diclofenac, alcohol and others are being abused daily without knowing the effect. A fifteen year old sickler sees ‘pentazocine’ as nothing as he always injects himself without knowing the adverse effect of the continuous use of the drug

   The problem of self medication is still far from being over as doctors and physicians hardly care for their patients as they toggle between the public hospitals and their private clinics and pharmacies. Most pharmacies in Nigeria lack the presence of a pharmacist. We owe it to ourselves to stop this epidemic. SAY NO TO SELF MEDICATION AND DRUG ABUSE