WHICH? MEDICINE: IGNORANCE ABOUT MEDICINES

Imagine a situation. Your doctor writes out a prescription and hands it to you as you leave the surgery, assuming that you will have no difficulty in following the instructions on the label. Later, the pharmacist supplying the medicine says nothing because he or she does not know what the doctor has told you and in any case is not necessarily able to tell from the prescription what the medicine is for. The only help you have is the label on the bottle and your own common sense.

The situation is far from imaginary. In Britain it has been common for many years, even though doctors and pharmacists should tell you about the medicines you take. As a consumer you are most vulnerable when you cannot exercise an informed choice about the products you use. You need to know how to get access to information about the products, which product is safest and most reliable, how to use it and what to do if something goes wrong. Lack of information can be dangerous, and the dangers are not restricted to prescription medicines:

In January 1989 a woman died from liver failure after taking too much paracetamol to treat flu. She simply didn't know that she was putting herself in danger.

Throughout the course of Christmas Day she tried to fight off flu to cook lunch, taking ordinary paracetamol tablets and several paracetamol-based drugs, among which were combination cold medicines. It is possible that she may have had some alcohol, too.

After lunch, feeling ill, she gave up and went to bed, taking two further paracetamol. She then became seriously ill and later died in hospital.

This is just one of a number of cases where people have taken too much of a medicine without understanding the consequences.

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