2023-06-07 19:08:57
Three out of ten French people adapt the dose or duration of their medication themselves when one in five takes doses higher than recommended or mixes several medications, according to the ANSM. But these practices can have health risks.
“Spices work well when mixed together, drugs don’t.” The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) is launching a major information and prevention campaign on Wednesday to warn of the risks of self-medication.
Choice of treatment, quantity, duration, each patient requires personalized instructions to treat their ailments.
“The drugs are prescribed for a particular pathology for one and the same person, I do not advise anyone to exchange drugs or to give them to their neighbor because they think they have the same symptoms”, warns Frédéric Desmoulins, pharmacist at the microphone of BFMTV.
However, many French people take the initiative to take drugs without a prescription.
According to a study conducted by the ANSM with a panel of French people, three out of ten patients adapt the dose or duration of the prescribed medication themselves, one in five takes higher doses than recommended or mixes several medications at the same time. and one in two French people give medication to their relatives who have the same symptoms as them.
“In practice, people are reasonable”
However, these practices involve risks, which can go so far as to cause the death of the user.
“If we combine all the misuse of drugs, that’s 10,000 deaths per year, that’s three times more than road accidents, and 130,000 hospitalizations”, warns Doctor Alain Ducardonnet, health consultant for BFMTV, citing advanced figures by the Good Usage of Medicines Collective in 2018.
If he recognizes that the cases of self-medication are “numerous”, the general practitioner Jean-Christophe Nogrette wishes to emphasize that he sees “very few accidents” happening in his office with serious consequences.
“The theoretical risk is that people have no training so they don’t know what they are doing (…), but in practice, people are reasonable”, assures BFMTV.com the one who is also deputy general secretary of the union of general practitioners MG France.
Know “the rules of the game”
Overdose is one of the most common risks of self-medication. “If I feel like I need it or it’s not strong enough, I’ll increase the dosage myself,” a young woman told our mic.
If it is a drug containing paracetamol, such as Doliprane or Efferalgan, this practice does not present any risk, provided “you know the rules of the game well”, warns Alain Ducardonnet, namely not to exceed one gram of medication per intake, themselves spaced four to six hours apart, for a maximum of three grams per day.
Beyond that, there is a risk of drug-induced hepatitis, which may even require a liver transplant. Same story from the side of Jean-Christophe Nogrette who explains that an overdose of anti-inflammatories can be risky for good kidney health or that too much beta-blocker intake can lead to cardiac arrest.
Beware of overdoses of food supplements
The doctor also sees overdoses of food supplements passing through his office.
“We are also seeing more and more overdoses of food supplements, with in particular mothers who give vitamin D to their babies, because it is fashionable”, he relates.
However, this type of overdose “it can be dangerous, and lead to neurological disorders”, adds the doctor, specifying that these extreme cases remain rare.
Also, the initiative to take a drug can be without danger, but “if we add in the equation a treatment that the patient takes in parallel for a chronic illness or other, that can complicate things”, underlines Jean-Christophe Nogrette .
What regarding expired drugs?
The ANSM also invites users to pay attention to the methods and shelf life of medicines.
For Jean-Christophe Nogrette, the most common risk with consuming an expired drug is “a small loss of effectiveness”. It can also become toxic, but this only happens if it is kept in very poor conditions. The stability of products remains a highly regarded element at the time of their development.
“Antibiotics, there is no question of taking them if they are expired, because the effectiveness is not good and they can be toxic. Eye drops, syrups, ointments are the same, especially if they are opened, we throw them away. For medicines for small sores, we can tolerate four to five months of expiry”, specifies for his part the doctor Alain Ducardonnet.
Beyond these risks, doctors aren’t necessarily opposed to self-medication for common symptoms that patients experience regularly, such as migraines or colds.
“People are competent to treat them themselves, but if it gets worse, we don’t persist and we make an appointment,” advises Jean-Christophe Nogrette.
A consequence of the lack of doctors
Self-medication is also often a consequence of the lack of general practitioners.
“When I don’t necessarily have the opportunity to go back to see the doctor, I take the initiative to take additional medication,” says a young woman.
In this case, the deputy secretary general of the union of general practitioners advises to contact pharmacists, who also have good advice while waiting to obtain an appointment with their doctor.
In any case, in general practice, the “‘what have you already taken?’ has become a ritual question”, loose Jean-Christophe Nogrette.
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