Mumbai: Come winter, doctors advise against self-medication

Mumbai: With the winter approaching, self-medication becomes a major concern for doctors. Often it is the friendly chemist, friend or patient themselves who suggest self-medicating based on the common symptoms. Needless to say, it is completely inappropriate to take medications without a proper medical consultation.

The treatment required would often be just symptomatic care, but often antibiotics are dispensed for the same and this promotes the development of a resistant organism. “What looks like a mild illness would be actually a serious problem, requiring appropriate diagnosis, tests, and treatment. If precious time is wasted in self-medicating, the consequences are dire, often leading to the hospital and intensive care admission or in some cases, a threat to life,” said a doctor.

The fluctuating temperatures and the frequently changing weather conditions within the cities in India have led to increased viral infections. Most often self-medication is the option for quick relief; however, there is no role of antibiotics in common viral infections.

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Dr Vikrant Shah, Internal Medicine Expert, Zen Multispecialty Hospital, says, “The effectiveness and easy access to antibiotics has led to their overuse, prompting bacteria to develop resistance. This has led to widespread problems, so much as to prompt the World Health Organization to classify antimicrobial resistance as a “serious threat [that] is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country. Hence it is extremely important to meet a doctor if you have any symptoms suggestive of infection.”

A senior doctor said that if the patient might be suffering from dengue and his platelet count might fall silently to such a lower level, that it might be too late to save the patient. Many a time, instructions given by doctors with medication are very important that are missed in self-medication, example taking chloroquine empty stomach by children might cause heavy vomiting deteriorating the condition.

The doctors said a problem with self-medication is people are unaware of differential diagnosis, misses out the important investigations that need to be carried out before treatment, and end up taking wrong medications, which might give fatal side effects or body might become drug resistance. “It is high time we have awareness amongst ourselves and we join our hands to spread this awareness to protect our and many more generations to come from this dreaded emerging multi-drug resistant organisms!” added Dr. Vikrant.