Why Shouldn’t You Self-medicate With Antibiotics?
The first thing to say is that self-medicating with antibiotics is dangerous. We emphasize the word dangerous ; not only inconvenient and contrary to common sense, but highly risky to health for various reasons.
By self-medicating with antibiotics you are not only putting your health at risk due to the side effects that may arise, but with this behavior you promote the appearance of resistance. In other words, if you do need that antibiotic later, it may no longer have any effect on you.
The issue is not limited only to the effects it can have on your health and your life, but eventually this has a collective, and even planetary scope. According to the World Health Organization, resistance to antibiotics is:
Self-medicate with antibiotics?
We speak of self-medication when a person decides to use a drug without having the diagnosis, prescription or follow-up of a doctor. This is a common practice in many places, where the regulation of medicines is not very strict.
There are over-the-counter medications , which means you can take them without a prescription. They are drugs to treat minor symptoms such as headache, cough, heartburn. However, all these drugs carry warnings about their use that you should not ignore.
Antibiotics, in particular, should never be taken without a prescription. However, some pharmacies issue them without that requirement. There are also people who use the ones left over from a previous prescription when they had symptoms of infection. This is totally inadvisable and we will see why in a moment.
Main risks
The main risk of improper use of antibiotics is resistance to them. When a doctor prescribes them, it means that they have found a bacterial-not viral-type infection and consider that one of these drugs can help you overcome it.
With regard to antibiotics, the dose and duration of treatment are very important. This is determined by the doctor, based on their knowledge and your state of health. These medications must be ingested as ordered by the professional who prescribes them for the treatment to be effective and risk-free.
Failure to take antibiotics correctly can result in the attacking bacteria developing mutations, specifically a mutation to resist the drug. The consequence is that if you have a bacterial infection again, that antibiotic will no longer work for you, and doctors will have fewer options to help you overcome the disease.
Other effects of self-medication
Self-medicating with antibiotics not only puts you at risk of developing resistance, it can also have other effects on your health, which in some cases can be serious. The most important are the following:
- Side effects: any drug can cause side effects, ranging from headaches, dizziness and diarrhea, to seizures or anaphylactic shock.
- Individual characteristics: if you have another disease, or your state of health presents some peculiarities, the antibiotic can aggravate everything, and even lead to a hospital emergency.
- Poisoning: an inadequate dose can lead to excess poisoning.
- Inappropriate interaction: if you are taking other medications, taking antibiotics can reduce or increase the effect of the other drugs.
The consequences for society
One of the most serious consequences of self-medicating with antibiotics is that you help create the right conditions for one of those superbugs that have devastated the world in recent years to take shape. The excessive or inappropriate use of antibiotics is one of the main causes of this happening.
According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), diseases caused by microorganisms such as staph have become extremely resistant, even to the most powerful antibiotics. These types of diseases kill more people in that country than AIDS, Parkinson’s disease and homicides.
Another alarming case in the world is tuberculosis, which is increasingly resistant to all types of antibiotics and currently kills about two million people each year. Pneumonia and sepsis are two other good examples.
The World Health Organization has said that if these drugs continue to be used improperly, several infections that today are completely treatable will be fatal within 10 years. For all those reasons, you should never self-medicate with antibiotics.
