Riesgos, impacto de la automedicación en la salud y medidas de prevención en los pacientes

Abstract

Self-medication is defined as the act of taking over-the-counter medications without the prescription of a health professional. The present analysis is focused on the resolution of a clinical case in which a 60-year-old adult self-medication problem is manifested. After surgery, he suffers from nausea and vomiting and self-medicates with metoclopramide to treat the symptoms; however, he begins to suffer from other manifestations. The aim of this work is to determine the risks and impact of self-medication on health and prevention measures in patients. The methodology applied was based on the search and bibliographic review of scientific articles. As a result, after the bibliographic analysis, metoclopramide was related to the triggering of extrapyramidal symptoms since it is a frequent reaction of this drug, which can be confused with symptoms of Parkinson's disease, it was recommended to suspend the consumption of metoclopramide and the use of ondansetron to treat and prevent nausea and vomiting. Likewise, removing the administration of carbidopa/levodopa and clonazepam. Strategies such as educating the patient about the adverse effects and thus minimizing the risks produced by self-medication were proposed. Finally, it was concluded that self-medication is a problem that has a great impact on the patient's health, because it has a negative influence on the health and diagnosis of diseases, and it can also lead to the excessive administration of drugs and generate a cascade of unnecessary medication.