Nowadays, many people keep some commonly used medicines at home, especially the elderly. They have many underlying diseases and do not like to go to the hospital, so they often take medicines 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: Selecting drugs based on feelings
Selecting drugs based on feelings is a common misunderstanding in home medication.
Some elderly people have the mentality of "a long-term illness can make a doctor". They feel that they know their own body very well and have their own opinions and judgments about the disease. Therefore, when they feel unwell, they often rely on their own "experience" or the advice of their neighbors. They use their experience to judge the condition and use medicine without authorization. A survey by
found that a considerable number of elderly patients take medication based on their feelings. For example, if an elderly person suddenly feels abdominal pain at home and does not know the cause, he or she will treat it as a stomach problem and use analgesics or stomach medicine to deal with it, but this may mask some acute abdominal symptoms. or cardiovascular problems, leading to delayed disease progression and possibly even serious consequences.
Common misunderstanding 2: Reuse of drugs. I don’t know.
Many drugs often have multiple effects. Some drugs have the same effect, but they have different shapes or manufacturers, or they mainly correspond to different symptoms, or they are suitable for different people. For example, acetaminophen is available in tablets and liquids. The tablets are suitable for adults, and the liquids are suitable for infants and young children.
Additionally, different medications may contain the same ingredient. Take acetaminophen as an example. Many cold medicines contain it, such as Tylenol (Phenamimin Tablets), Kuaike (Compound Paracetamol Capsules), Gankang (Compound Paracetamol Tablets), Baijiahei ( Ammonia Benmei Tablets), Baifu Ning [Aminophen Pseudo-Mamifen Tablets (day tablets)/Ammonia Memin II (night tablets)] and Sanlitong (compound acetaminophen tablets), etc.
Some elderly patients believe that the more types of drugs they take, the faster their condition will improve. They simply think of treating diseases as "fighting", as if the medicine they take is the soldiers they send out, and the more the better.
But many elderly people simply cannot tell whether various medicines contain the same ingredients. If you just add medicine blindly, it is likely to cause other damage to the body due to too much of a certain ingredient in the medicine you take. For example, taking too much acetaminophen can cause liver damage.
Common misunderstanding 3: Superstition about health care medicines and advertising drugs
Nowadays, many elderly people are very concerned about health care programs, or related information and advertisements. However, because they are unable to identify those over-promoted drugs, some elderly patients prefer to listen to and believe in advertised drugs, believing that the latest and most expensive drugs are the best drugs to treat their diseases.
As a result, these exaggerated drugs will 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 a runny nose or sneezing, regardless of whether their body temperature reaches the medication standard; or when their body temperature just exceeds 37°C, they do not know whether it is a bacterial infection or a viral infection. Just use antibiotics freely.
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 due to bacterial infection, antibiotics are used to treat it. It won't work anymore.
Not only that, the misuse of antibiotics can also cause damage to the human body. Before the drug reaches the lesion, it needs to go through a series of metabolic processes, which increases a lot of metabolites. These metabolites have certain harm to the liver, kidney and other organs.
Therefore, antibiotics should be used with caution, and it is best to use them rationally under the guidance of a doctor.
Common misunderstanding 5: Changing medications too frequently or stopping medication suddenly
As the saying goes, illness comes like a mountain and falls like a mountain, and illness goes away like a silk thread. It takes a certain amount of time for any drug to take effect, and it does not happen overnight. Everyone knows the truth, but sometimes they are eager to improve their condition and frequently change medications.
Some patients even take the medicine for a day or two and feel that it is not effective, so they change the medicine without permission, or increase the dosage of the medicine 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. As everyone knows, the germs in the body are not completely eliminated at this time, and the condition may recur after stopping the medicine.
At present, as offline and community medicine purchasing becomes more and more convenient, medication safety issues for the elderly are gradually becoming prominent. As family members, we should pay more attention to the medication safety of the elderly, supervise and supervise the medication of the elderly, and avoid greater harm caused by medication errors.
Editor: Wen Xiting
Information: Internet Joint Rumor Refuting Platform
