Surfing, self-medicating and safety: buying non-prescription and complementary medicines via the internet

Bessell, Tracey Lee

doi:10.1136/qhc.12.2.88

Cited by 72 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…4 There is no governance or body to control or look at the quality of the information provided as many of the websites are from outside of the UK. Also, there often are no references for the information provided, and when references are available they may not be evidence-based.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet pharmacies - boon or threat?

Rajagopal¹

2016

Prog. Neurol. Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With advances in the field of technology, more and more people have started relying on the internet for their day-to-day activities. While it is always good to gain more knowledge through the internet, patients and doctors need to be aware of the dark side of the web. As the internet marketplace grows, the number of online pharmacies has increased exponentially. When stuck with illness or a medical problem, some individuals opt for prescription drugs online as a means of quick access to the medications they think they require rather than go to the effort of seeing a GP and having to endure long waiting lists. Often, the risks associated with buying drugs online are not fully known to either the purchaser or even sometimes the health professionals, who may be asked about such sites. Case studyWe recently had an elderly gentleman who was living on his own, with his two grown-up children living some distance away. A couple of years ago he started to have trouble sleeping. He had visited his local surgery who had advised him on sleep hygiene and good exercise. Though he was willing to try, he was sceptical about any improvement. A friend suggested he could buy sleeping tablets online. As he was a keen online user, he was quick to try this and easily found sites that were happy to send him zolpidem, a hypnotic, without a prescription. He started using these without his GP being aware. He did not find much benefit and he later reported that the drug might have affected his mood. He then took an overdose of all the medications he had bought online in response to some issues in his social life. Fortunately, an ambulance was called and he was taken to A&E. Following a brief admission, he was discharged and followed-up in the community. He was advised on the risks of obtaining medications online and trying to selfdiagnose and self-medicate. With good support, he has quickly returned to his usual self. With advice from health professionals and having learned from his own experience, he has now kept away from online medications. SurveyFollowing this incident, our team conducted a short survey among the psychiatric medical professionals at two local hospitals. The results showed that none of the doctors were confident to advise patients on online medications. Most of the doctors did not know much about online medications, how to advise patients on checking authenticity of online pharmacies or how they could be accessed. Many were not aware of the important risks posed by these online pharmacies. Some were also not sure whether buying medications is legal or illegal. DiscussionIt is not illegal to buy or sell drugs via the internet. Online pharmacies can dispense medication once they have received a legally valid prescription. A legal prescription is a paper or electronic prescription made by a GP or other health professional who has the powers to prescribe. Certain websites offer prescriber services. After an online consultation a prescription is generated for dispensing. The NHS Choices website states that: 'An online consu...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet pharmacies - boon or threat?

Rajagopal¹

2016

Prog. Neurol. Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hence, upsurge the sale of medicine via internet without face to face interaction with a healthcare professional. This could lead to insufficient information about the safety and appropriate use of medicine or even potential hazard from their use (Bessell et al, 2003;Fittler et al, 2013). The revolution of using the internet and especially the social media is great in Iraq since 2007.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Screening of two glucocorticoids in non-prescription skin whitening creams purchased via internet in Iraq by HPLC method

2018

J App Pharm Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using illegal lightening creams or preparations were reported widely throughout the world. Therefore, the present study aimed to the simultaneous determination of clobetasol 17-propionate (CB) and betamethasone 17-valerate (BM) in skin whitening creams purchased via internet from Iraqi market. The liquid chromatography was performed with Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 (150 × 3.0 mm ID, 5 µm), mobile phase acetonitrile (70): water (30), the flow rate of 1 ml/ min and a UV detector at 240 nm. The method was validated in terms of linearity, selectivity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection and quantification and stability of working solutions. The analytical method proved to be linear in the range of 1-40 µg/ml for both CB and BM. The limits of detection and quantification for CB and BM were (0.024 µg/ml, 0.075 µg/ml) and (0.035 µg/ml, 0.107 µg/ml), respectively, which revealed the sensitivity of the method. The precision, accuracy and stability study of working solutions of the method were between 0.52 to 1.93%, 97.87 to 100.55% and 0.48 to 1.72%, respectively. The results revealed that all purchased samples from beauty/cosmetic shops contained different levels of CB and/or BM. Moreover, the mixed preparations which purchased from the pharmacies also contained either CB or BM. The present study offers simple and sensitive analytical method to be used in the quality control laboratories and forensic point of view to identify illegal or counterfeit medicinal products or cosmetic preparations. Moreover, a new and restrict regulations must be implemented to ban the use of topical corticosteroids without prescription.

show abstract

“…Castiel e Vasconcellos-Silva 13 manifestam esta preocupação com a seguinte indagação: "Como lidar com a possibilidade de estímulo à automedicação e a suposta proliferação de "cybercondríacos". Para esta pergunta ainda não existe uma resposta definitiva, contudo, as facilidades trazidas pelas farmácias on line e pelos "no prescription web sites" (NPWs), em que é possível comprar medicamentos controlados sem prescrição, conferem à internet um papel facilitador para a automedicação 14,15 .…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

“…Muitas vezes, informações como indicação e posologia estão disponíveis, permitindo que um indivíduo inicie um tratamento sem uma prévia consulta ao médico e o correto diagnóstico 14 .…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

See 1 more Smart Citation

Consumo de medicamentos e internet: análise crítica de uma comunidade virtual

Souza¹,

Marinho²,

Guilam³

2008

Rev. Assoc. Med. Bras.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

RESUMOOBJETIVO. Discute-se a promoção do uso de medicamentos na mídia a partir da análise dos diálogos de uma comunidade virtual, cujos participantes utilizam a substância benzidamina em altas dosagens, em busca de seus efeitos adversos. MÉTODOS. Privilegiou-se uma abordagem qualitativa em que, através da técnica de análise de conteúdo, os comentários de um grupo reunido em um Serviço de Rede Social (SRS), disponível na rede mundial de computadores (internet), foram analisados. Dados de 385 participantes foram reunidos e utilizados para a identificação do perfil dos indivíduos. RESULTADOS. O perfil encontrado foi de jovens entre 18 e 20 anos, predominantemente do sexo masculino e com escolaridade média. Verificou-se a partir da análise dos comentários, uma tendência ao consumo de 16 a 20 drágeas do medicamento, acompanhadas ou não de álcool, com o predomínio dos seguintes efeitos: alucinações visuais, insônia e distúrbios gastrointestinais. Pôde-se identificar nos diálogos, duas correntes: uma, que incentiva seu uso não-terapêutico e outra, que o desaconselha. CONCLUSÃO. Uma comunidade virtual organizada em torno da discussão de uso não-terapêutico de um medicamento pode contribuir para a sua promoção, principalmente em jovens. Tal fato reforça a necessidade de maiores campanhas de alerta sobre a automedicação e o cumprimento das leis sanitárias pelas farmácias e drogarias.UNITERMOS: Automedicação. Droga ilícitas. Internet. Uso de medicamentos. CONSUMO DE MEDICAMENTOS E INTERNET INTRODUÇÃOEste estudo teve como proposta discutir a promoção do uso de medicamentos na mídia a partir da análise dos diálogos de uma comunidade virtual. Reunida através de um Serviço de Rede Social (SRS) disponível na internet, um grupo discute os efeitos do uso do medicamento Benflogin em altas dosagens.O uso indiscriminado e indevido de medicamentos constitui um grave problema de saúde pública, principalmente nos casos de automedicação, ou seja, na ausência de prescrição médica. Por ser esta uma atribuição técnica e legal do profissional médico, qualquer indivíduo que aconselhe a utilização de um fármaco incorre em exercício ilegal da medicina, crime previsto no Código Penal (1940), em seu artigo 282 1 . Da mesma forma, a reutilização de receitas antigas pode ser caracterizada como automedicação, uma vez que o medicamento em questão pode não ser necessariamente de uso continuado 2 .Como em outros países, no Brasil a automedicação é uma prática amplamente difundida 3,4 . Dados da Associação Brasileira das Indústri-as Farmacêuticas (ABIFARMA) estimam que na década de 90 aproximadamente 80 milhões de pessoas no país eram adeptas da automedicação 5 .A automedicação, assim como a prescrição errônea, pode resultar em efeitos indesejáveis, desde o mascaramento de doenças em evolução até o surgimento de enfermidades iatrogênicas. No Brasil, onde a maioria da população possui baixa escolaridade e pouco acesso à informação com relação ao uso correto de medicamentos, a prática torna-se particularmente perigosa 4 .Outra preocupação sobre o uso in...

show abstract

Surfing, self-medicating and safety: buying non-prescription and complementary medicines via the internet

Cited by 72 publications

References 13 publications

Internet pharmacies - boon or threat?

Internet pharmacies - boon or threat?

Screening of two glucocorticoids in non-prescription skin whitening creams purchased via internet in Iraq by HPLC method

Consumo de medicamentos e internet: análise crítica de uma comunidade virtual

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About