When to and not to use prescription drugs
The answer to whether prescription drugs are good for your health will vary greatly from person to person. While some prescription drugs have side effects that often outweigh the benefits, some are unnecessary and others are extremely important for an individual to maintain a reasonable quality of life.
The biggest factor to consider when deciding whether to start using or continue using prescription drugs is whether the benefits outweigh the side effects.
Some prescription drugs can lead to side effects that can greatly impact a person’s life, such as not being able to do things such as driving a car, constantly feeling nauseas, fatigued or constipated. Some other drugs, such as the acne medication Accutane, have been proved to worsen or even cause depression.
However there are countless legitimate uses for prescription drugs.
Those suffering from depression, anxiety, mental illness, diabetes and insomnia would have a greatly reduced quality of life if not for prescription drugs. That’s not to say that people suffering from these ailments all use prescription drugs. On the contrary, there are many people with varying disorders who choose natural remedies or therapies instead of taking prescription drugs.
One of the biggest downfalls of prescription drugs is that many of them can be addictive. With many prescription drugs, the effects gradually wear off, causing the taker to consume a higher amount of drugs in order to achieve a constant result. Painkillers, anxiolytics (anti-anxiety drugs) and sleeping tablets are often the biggest culprits, with pharmacists becoming more trained in order to spot a developing substance abuse problem in patients.
Many prescription drugs contain ingredients that are chemically similar to street drugs. For example, Codeine is chemically similar to heroin (diamorphine) and morphine, while Adderall contains four different types of amphetamines.
The addictive qualities of prescription drugs like benzodiazepines and prescription opiates make them extremely vulnerable to abuse, even by those who would never consider themselves dependent on drugs. Due to the prevalence and ease of prescription Benzodiazepine addictions are rapidly expanding into being one of the most prolific forms of prescription medication addictions in South Africa. We have compiled a complete list of benzodiazepines sold in South Africa under their pharmacological names.
Recently, more and more people are turning to natural remedies, as the side-effects and risk of addiction to prescription drugs becomes more heavily researched and news is spread through in media outlets.