Please pay attention to these common misunderstandings about home medication and be careful not to fall into the "pit"

Author: He Xinhua, Chief Physician, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University

Reviewer: Guo Shubin, Chief Physician, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University

Nowadays, many people keep some common medicines at home, especially the elderly, who have many underlying diseases and do not like to go to the hospital, and often take medicine at home. However, it should be noted that there are many misunderstandings about home medication. If you are not careful, it will not only fail to relieve the pain, but may also cause serious consequences.

Common Misunderstanding 1: Drug Selection Based on Feeling

Choosing medicines based on feelings is a common misunderstanding in home medicine. Some elderly people hold the mentality of "long-term illness makes a doctor", thinking that they know their own bodies very well and have their own views and judgments on the condition. Therefore, when they feel unwell, they often judge the condition based on their own "experience" or the experience of their neighbors and use medicine without authorization.

The survey found that a considerable number of elderly patients take medication based on their feelings. For example, when an elderly person suddenly feels abdominal pain at home, they may treat it as a stomach disease without knowing the cause and use analgesics or stomach medicine on their own. However, this may mask some acute abdominal or cardiovascular problems, leading to delayed treatment and even serious consequences.

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Common misunderstanding 2: Don’t know about repeated use of drugs

Many drugs often have multiple functions. Some drugs have the same functions, but they are in different shapes or manufacturers, or they mainly correspond to different symptoms, or they are suitable for different groups of people. For example, acetaminophen comes in tablets and liquids. Tablets are suitable for adults, while liquids are suitable for infants and young children.

In addition, different drugs may contain the same ingredient. Take acetaminophen for example, many cold medicines contain it, such as Tylenol (acetaminophen tablets), Kuaike (compound acetaminophen capsules), Gankang (compound acetaminophen tablets), Baijiahei (acetaminophen tablets), Baifuning [acetaminophen pseudo-acetaminophen tablets (day tablets)/acetaminophen II (night tablets)] and Sanlitong (compound acetaminophen tablets).

Some elderly patients believe that the more types of medicine they take, the faster they will get better. They simply think of treating illness as "fighting a war", as if the medicine they take is like the soldiers they send out, and the more the better.

However, many elderly people cannot distinguish whether various drugs contain the same ingredients. If they just add more drugs blindly, it is likely that too much of a certain ingredient in the drug will cause other damage to the body. For example, excessive intake of acetaminophen can cause liver damage.

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Common misunderstanding three: superstitious belief in health care drugs and advertised drugs

Nowadays, many elderly people pay close attention to health programs, or related information and advertisements. However, because they cannot identify those excessive advertisements, some elderly patients tend to listen to and believe in advertised drugs, thinking that the latest and most expensive drugs are the best drugs for curing diseases.

As a result, these overhyped drugs not only affect the treatment of diseases but also cause a waste of resources.

Common misunderstanding 4: Abuse of antibiotics

Some elderly patients use antibiotics at will after they have a runny nose or sneezing, regardless of whether their body temperature reaches the medication standard; or they use antibiotics at will when their body temperature just exceeds 37°C without knowing whether it is a bacterial infection or a viral infection.

Studies have shown that blindly using antibiotics to treat inflammation caused by non-bacterial infections not only fails to cure the disease, but also causes bacterial resistance and even the emergence of superbugs. When the body is actually inflamed by a bacterial infection, using antibiotics to treat it will no longer be effective [1].

Moreover, the abuse of antibiotics is also harmful to the human body. Before reaching the lesion, the drug needs to go through a series of metabolic processes, which increases a lot of metabolites, which are harmful to the liver, kidneys and other organs.

Therefore, antibiotics should be used with caution and preferably under the guidance of a doctor.

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Common Misunderstanding 5: Changing medication too frequently or stopping medication suddenly

As the saying goes, illness comes like a mountain falling, and goes away like a thread being pulled out. It takes a certain amount of time for any drug to take effect, not overnight. Everyone knows this, but sometimes people are eager to get better and frequently change drugs.

Some patients even change medications without authorization after taking the medicine for just one or two days because they feel there is not much effect, or increase the dosage of the medication without following the doctor's instructions.

In addition, many elderly people often stop taking medicine as soon as their body temperature returns to normal after having a fever. However, they do not know that the bacteria in the body have not been completely eliminated at this time, and the disease may recur after stopping the medication.

At present, as it becomes more and more convenient to buy medicine offline and in the community, the issue of medication safety for the elderly is gradually becoming prominent. As family members, we should pay more attention to the medication safety of the elderly, supervise and urge their medication, and avoid greater harm caused by medication errors.

References

Li Le. Home medication: the most important thing is "medicine". Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2020.