Pros & Cons of Self-Medication

It is true that human body witnesses several dilemmas and complications due to various infections, ailments and syndromes that occur time to time on account of various reasons including exorbitant stress, psychological trauma, work-life pressure, frequent usage of unhygienic eatables and inherited disorders. In order to get rid of such diseases, medication is essential. Now it is the choice of that particular person to avail both options, either to become habitual of self-medication or to first consult a general physician and then go ahead for the process of treatment in lieu of doctor’s prescription

Self-Medication is not a new phenomenon in the society. It exists in all the demographics, regions and localities all around the globe most prominently among the Asian countries. Individuals, families have been so much addicted to self-medication that they found nothing bizarre in selecting medicine of their own choice without even knowing its consequences and accurate implications what so ever. In the selection criteria of medicines these people are so much confident as if they are practicing medicine since years. What is important to such people is their internal satisfaction, quick relief from pain and a narrow escape from the doctor’s fees or healthcare cost

It is an unquestionable fact that we all have feast our eyes on the process of Self-medication at least once in a life time without having the knowledge of its dire concerns and repercussions that vary from disease to disease. The under mentioned are the important pros and cons of self-medication that need to be known to the public at large:

Advantages of Self-Medication

1. Treatment by own choice regardless of doctors consultation.
2. Treating the ailments on the basis of parental advices.
3. Initial level of ailments can easily be treated by self-medication such as fever, headache, cough etc.
4. Decline in the healthcare cost including doctor’s fee which is extravagant in any case.
5. Increasing the awareness of health care and medication to the residents living in far-flung areas who are mostly uneducated and ill-informed.
6. Bringing huge decline on the burden of medical services and other basic amenities where human capital is inadequate.
7. Self-medication empowers individuals to resist with the existing chronic abnormalities by their own perception and understanding.

Disadvantages of Self-Medication

1. Self-medication is a blend of following consequences:
2. Incompatible medication by patient’s own choice may result in treatment failures while making the ailment more complicated.
3. Self-medicated patients are brought into the hospital, when the ailment has reached a terrible or an incurable mode.
4. Due to inapt usage of medication the chances of drug reactions increases at a higher rate.
5. Due to self-medication, the incongruous occurrence of both under dosing and overdosing results in the deadly adversarial conditions.
6. An unbearable cost of healthcare arises due to prolonged recovery.
7. Uncountable side-effects of the dosages terribly destroys and imbalances the internal hormonal structure of human body.

In today’s world people are highly accustomed in using medicines on their own initiatives. It is the responsibility of the government to take bold measures in restricting the pharmacist from advising and selling medicines to the public without any properly authorized prescription. On the other hand, it is a shared responsibility that is also inter-reliant on the family members to abstain from taking medicines of their own choice.