Heya!
It is a beautiful week, a wonderful beginning to a blissful month and i would like to use this opportunity to say Happy New Month to you all, i do hope that things are going great for all already and i am optimistic that more wonderful things will find its way to us.
Once i am here to share with you then we are definitely talking about health and ways we could go about things to improve our health and our lives in general. Today i want to talk about the dangers of self-diagnosis and medication that we may understand the need to desist from such acts. I do hope you enjoy the read.
Story Time
I love to tell stories from my cases that comes to me during my work ours because most individuals can relate better and understand thing easier this way. So i had patient who came in with reports of pain in the eye, apparently it started within the last 24 hours and when it was getting worse she decided to resort to google to check out her differentials.
It looks like this is a habit she practices and sometimes it works for her sometimes it doesn't but to her this was the first time she did anything like that with regards to the eye. I asked her if she wasn't scared and she said, "well if it gets worse i'd eventually see the doctor so...". After searching she learnt that steroids work well for pain provided the cornea is not compromised.
Well she obviously didn't have the needed tools to check for cornea integrity neither did she have the knowledge so she just went to the drug store to buy steroid eye drops and started using. Fortunately the pain didn't go away or didn't subside as she had hoped and so she decided that since this is about the eye she would come and see the Optometrist.
The reason why i said fortunately was because when she came her cornea epithelial cells were eroded upon staining which means that had she continue to use the drop she would have ended up damaging her sight through the formation of scar tissues on the eye. When i explained how severe the situation was and the threat to her sight she promised not to do that again.
Now reading up on your signs and symptoms is never a bad thing, reading about your health and differential diagnosis is not a bad thing, it could make you understand the doctor's diagnosis even better and as to why you were given this or that drug, however, it should never be a replacement for your primary caregiver as this is dangerous and a lot of times could cost your dearly.
So read, make efforts for your own health but do not jeopardize your health by trying to manage your condition if it is not your area of expertise.
Conclusion
Self medication with over the counter drugs could be dangerous and more so self diagnosis through the googling of sign and symptoms. Avoid such habits and make effort to see the physician or needed speicalist for your care. When in doubt always consult a professional. You are the reason we schooled for many years.
@nattybongoYour health is your wealth, once again i would say it is a privilege to have the opportunity to share with you once again and i do hope that you learnt a thing or two from what i had to share today. Thanks for your time, cheers!
Further Reading
Baracaldo-Santamaría, D., Trujillo-Moreno, M. J., Pérez-Acosta, A. M., Feliciano-Alfonso, J. E., Calderon-Ospina, C. A., & Soler, F. (2022). Definition of self-medication: a scoping review. Therapeutic advances in drug safety, 13, 20420986221127501. https://doi.org/10.1177/20420986221127501.
Ruiz M. E. (2010). Risks of self-medication practices. Current drug safety, 5(4), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.2174/157488610792245966
Levine D. A. (2007). "Pharming": the abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs in teens. Current opinion in pediatrics, 19(3), 270–274. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0b013e32814b09cf.