Opinion | Say Yes to Doctors, No to self-Medication

As the temperatures pulmmates in Kashmir region during  the winter it brings the host of ailments from seasonal flue to common cold.Winter season comes with lot of health issues particularly for those whose age comes between 60 to 90 years. But did you know dropping temperatures can also make you more vulnerable to infections?.Common cold is one of the most and contagious health issues associated with winter season.The symptoms of the condition are coughing,sneezing,sore throat, runny nose, headache and bodyache. With these complexities in winter season people resort to medical shops to buy medicines without consulting the concerned doctor. This practice of self medication is not knew in kashmir.It is essential to emphasize the potential dangers associated with this practice. Self medication poses significant risks, sometimes it led to serious damage of vital organs, though it relieves pain for quite some time, but consequences are fatal. According to WHO guidelines, self-medication is defined as medication taken on the patients own initiative or on the advice of pharmacist or any other lay person.’

    The winter season demands cautious approach towards health. Self medication should be outrightly avoided. People should prioritize consulting health care professionals for accurate diagnosis. Here in rural areas of kashmir, people claim  severe ailments of some vital organs which is actually the reason of self medication. Seeking professional medical advice becomes imperative to live healthier life in winter. It has been observed that people during the winter season approaching towards medical shops, diagnosis themselves with a mental condition and proceed to self medicate in hopes of improving their symptoms without speaking to health professional. Taking medication without talking to a doctor can be dangerous and even led to addiction as well.

  The prevalence of self-medication among young people has increased exponentially. Due to their basic knowledge and easy access to medicines. It has been witnessed usually in towns people gathering near medical shops mostly in winter seasons to buy pills, capsules, antibiotics aganist common infections or seasonal cold. This practice has been going on since ages. To be in good health is an essential component of ones life. So having access to an efficient health care system in a community is important.

     It is apt disappointing that there is very little or almost no awareness of disadvantages of self- medication. Medicines such as pain relief drugs,cough syrup,paracetamol/dolo650, antibiotics, anti-allergic medicines are easier to acquire, but what we don’t realize is that opting for self-medication makes us prone to allergies, drug dependence and even addiction. We  still go ahead and take doses randomly and don’t even check the composition of the medicine and are clueless about the side effects of these on our bodies.

     In many cases, self-medication leads a person towards lifelong health problems such as antibiotic resistance, Insomnia, depression, abdominal discomfort, immune system weakness, and kidney failure. I have seen many well versed persons used to visit medical shops for acquiring common medicines without doctors prescription which is absolutely a wrong practice. In Kashmir especially COVID-19 we have seen hundreds of cases, people procuring general medicines from medical shops for treatment of headache and cold. Post COVID-19 the percentage of self-medication ranges from 60-80 percent in kashmir which is quite alarming.There are also people who don’t take their illness serious or people busy in doing laborious work who don’t need to consult the doctor and they believe all they need to do is just to book Mr Google and get medicine for their discomfortness. People need to understand that Dr Google can be confusion eventually leads to severe dangerous. There is urgent need for authorities to strengthen the existing laws regarding Over The Counter(OTC) drug sales to ensure their proper sale and use of drugs. The Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940 And Drug and Cosmetics Rules 1945 have guidelines on the sale of Schedule H and Schedule X drugs . These can sold only on prescription. To put an end over increasing antibiotic resistance on the patients own initiative should be completely banned in Kashmir.

Qysar Ul Islam Shah teacher by profession, hails from Sonnar Darpora Lolab.