The Australian actor Heath Ledger, who was in his late 20s, would still be alive and well if it hadn’t been for drug overuse. He died suddenly in 2008, just days before the Academy Awards Ceremony at which he was posthumously awarded an Oscar for his role in “The Dark Knight"
The improper use or overuse of medications can present a greater threat than the disease itself. The tragedy of Heath Ledger is a fitting example. The police found vials of six prescription drugs in his bedroom and bathroom – mainly painkillers, sleeping pills and sedatives.
Different name, same medicine
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta prepared a report showing that, in the US, more people die of overmedication than in traffic accidents. These include prescription analgesics which cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
Poles are no better. According to a report prepared for Reckitt Benckiser one in five Poles takes more than 52 painkiller pills per year. In 2011 as many as 2 billion pills (or sachets) of analgesics were sold in Poland. Almost 1.5 billion of those pharmaceuticals were over-the-counter medicines and 475 million were cold medicines.
Many people are unaware that they can be taking the same medication on the same day, as effectively a single pharmaceutical is often marketed under different names. The same active substance might be present in analgesics and flu medications. Such an accumulated dose can poison the system and present a major health hazard.
Poisoning
Long-term use of a medication can be equally dangerous. “British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology" cautions against overusing paracetamol – a pain reliever and fever reducer. Even when it is taken in safe doses, but every day and this persists for weeks or months, it can be very harmful to health.
The Journal recommends not to increase the dose of paracetamol if it fails to help, but to consult a pharmacist who can find a better-suited or different analgesic. An even better solution is seeing a specialist doctor who can diagnose and eliminate the source of the pain, as it may turn out that an altogether different treatment is needed – one that treats the cause, and not just the effect that is pain.
Another group of abused medications includes tranquilizers and sedatives. After a certain time, their use might result in addiction. That is why pharmaceuticals containing benzodiazepine should not be taken longer than 4 weeks. A lot of people take them for many years and only become aware of their addiction after they stop taking it.
Deadly complications
Taking tranquilizers and sedatives might cause their contents to accumulate in the body, gradually leading to poisoning. “British Medical Journal" warns that, although sleep-inducing pills help you sleep better, their long use makes you four times more prone to die. Also, they make it 35% more probable that you will develop a malignant tumour.
According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta the number of deaths in the US caused by drug intoxication increased sixfold – from 6 thousand in 1980 to 36.5 thousand in 2008.
Margaret Warner from the National Center for Health Statistics claims that overmedication is responsible for 90% of all deaths caused by poisoning. Most of those (77%) are accidental. Only 13% are suicides.
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