Lupine Publishers | Journal of Drug Designing & Intellectual Properties
Introduction
There are medicines registered as such-and subject to the legislation
of pharmaceutical specialties-and products that, without being
registered as medicines, are sold and actively promoted, giving them
medicinal virtues.
Among the medications it is necessary to distinguish those of
prescription or prescription sale, of those without prescription or over
the counter (over the counter or OTC counter medications in Anglo-Saxon
terminology). On these there is the wrong an installed assumption among
the general public, which considers “over-the-counter” medicines safe.
All medications without exception, used in excessive doses or for too
long periods, in situations where they would not be indicated, can cause
side effects, collateral, undesirable or adverse effects, generate
interactions with other drugs or substances, induce behaviors of abuse
or dependence and even delay the diagnosis of a condition that requires
medical care.
Thus, for example, according to a study by Morlans, M., Laporte, J. et
al., About 13% of all the etiological burden of terminal nephropathy
that leads to dialysis or transplantation in our environment is due to
the chronic use of painkillers, almost always in the framework of self-
medication.
The sale of any medicine outside the pharmaceutical establishments is
highly risky for the health of population. As the Argentine
Pharmaceutical Confederation (COFA) warns, 20 percent of the drugs
consumed in the country are purchased outside pharmacies, such stores
include kiosks, supermarkets, service stations, gyms and even hotels
accommodation. Sometimes this also applies to prescription drugs.
The traceability of a drug is the monitoring of the route that the
product takes at all stages of its marketing, it is essential to achieve
a correct use of the medications (pharmacovigilance, detection of
chronic patients, patient monitoring) as well as to establish
an action Therapeutics free of complications. It is also a tool that
uses the health system to detect counterfeits, adulterations on
medications. When separating from the original sales channel,
traceability becomes difficult, if not impossible [1].
There is also a legal vacuum over their control by the national
authority, since ANMAT has no jurisdiction over establishments that are
not authorized by the Ministry of Health. In other words, the referred
“sales channels” (kiosks, warehouses, service stations) are outside
their jurisdiction and competence.
Advertising
The impact of the advertising of medicines on the behavior of
consumers is undeniable, and hence the potential risks it represents for
the health of the population. The National Academy of Medicine warned
on repeated occasions about “advertisements that encourage the use of
treatments and medications without medical supervision, and the
proliferation of advertising messages advising medications and
therapeutic procedures of benefit sometimes not established and
sometimes exaggerated, with the purpose to encourage their consumption”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) created the “Ethical criteria for
the promotion of medicines”, a theoretical framework where
recommendations are made on advertisements aimed at the public “should
help the population to make rational decisions about the use of
medicines that are legally available without a prescription.
According to studies carried out by the Maimonides University and the
Argentine Institute of Pharmaceutical Care (IADAF), the advertising of
medicines encourages self-medication or drug misuse, a problem that
takes 700 lives per year in the country.
In a note from health issues journalist Pedro Lipcovich, ( “Today we are
addictive”) analyzes a television message of aspirin (acetylsalicylic
acid) mentioning the striking omission of any of its therapeutic
properties as anti-inflammatory, anti-fever,
anticoagulant, associating its consumption “with ageneric welfare
state and high social and labor performance”.
We passively assist in the promotion of bad eating habits, widely
publicized, to increase the sales of a medicine that supposedly
counteracts the effects. The induction to the conduct of immediacy
in the installation of a treatment according to the symptoms, gives
results: everything can be solved with a tablet and even some
dietary supplements are preferred to be marketed as medicines
because they “sell more”. But this attitude has its When a teenager
is offered a “tablet” of ecstasy, with the promise of well-being and
pleasure, it is utopian to think he could say “no.”
To all this must be added the lightness with which we assist
in the prescription of medications. The mother, the coworker, the
hairdresser, the kiosk and even the doctor’s office, among patients,
recommend medications.
Advertising and active promotion by mass media, increases
irresponsible self-medication and irrational use of medications.
Medicinal drugs or medicines thus leave their place of social good,
essential for public health, and become a consumer good.
Drug dependence
Numerous medications are used to produce changes or
changes in mood, alone or in association with drugs or substances
of abuse. According to the 2008 National Survey on Prevalence of
Psychoactive Substance Consumption, conducted by INDEC, almost
4% of the population between 16 and 65 years of age consumes
tranquilizers.
It cannot be taken into account that almost all drugs of abuse
today were initially medications, which due to their pharmacological
and toxicological characteristics (tolerance, abuse, dependence)
began to be used for their psychoactive effects, being then restricted
or withdrawn in your pharmacological employment. Such is the
case of cocaine, some opiates (morphine, codeine), amphetamines,
anesthetics (ketamine), ephedrine, popper, etc.
The Abuse Medicines Observatory (WCO) in Spain conducted a
study that verified the non-medical consumption (substance abuse)
of a total of 27 substances. 22% consumed analgesics, some 12%
anxiolytics or tranquilizers (benzodiazepines); 10% stimulants and
the rest a wide range of substances.
Majority use patterns included mixtures with drugs and alcohol
and abuse of tranquilizers. Medications have always been part of
the “drug culture” in non-therapeutic uses, in order to experience
new sensations or obtain better yields. The modalities of drug
abuse change and it could be said that some of them “become
fashionable”. Currently, the “crazy jar” is the most common form
of alcohol and medication use-mostly benzodiazepines- among
teenagers and young adults.
According to data from the Toxicology Unit of the “Juan A.
Fernández” Hospital of the City of Buenos Aires, during 2008, 2182
consultations related to acute poisoning by substances of abuse
were attended; 292 of them were due to abuse of some type of
medication and another 205 were due to the association of some
medication with alcoholic beverages [2].
The equation between inappropriate promotion of drug use,
forms of facilitated or uncontrolled accessibility and patterns of
inappropriate use and substance abuse constitutes an increased risk
trilogy, which exposes the potentially most vulnerable population.
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