Over 25 per cent patients practise self-medication in Pakistan: experts

Around 25 per cent patients in Pakistan are in the habit of using prescription medicines without the advice of a physician, health experts said on Thursday and urged people and physicians to adopt “evidence-based medicines and interventions” for the treatment of both communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

“A large number of people in Pakistan, approximately around 25 per cent, take prescription medicines without consulting physicians. The abuse of medicines, especially those known as antibiotic drugs, is very common in our society, and it is making these medicines useless against many infectious diseases,” Prof Javed Akram, vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore, told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday.

Accompanied by the most senior professor of medicine in Pakistan, Prof Dr Eice Muhammad, secretary of the Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM), Dr Somia Iqtadar, Prof Aftab Mohsin, Prof Zaman Shaikh, Prof Dr Aziz-ur-Rehman, Dr. Farhan Essa and others, Prof Javed Akram said they were holding a three-day annual conference of PSIM from Friday in Karachi to promote evidence-based medicine in the country.

He remarked that medicine was rapidly evolving in the world and based on new research and studies, new therapies and interventions were emerging in the world, but unfortunately, many of the physicians were not aware of these advancements in the field of medical science, especially in the area of medicine.

“In a country where every second adult is hypertensive (having high blood pressure), 25 per cent population is diabetic and over 40 per cent children are either obese or overweight, it is imperative evidence-based medicines and interventions are adopted and prescribed to patients to lower the disease burden from the society.”

On the occasion, he said that the 3rd Annual Conference of PSIM on the theme of ‘Adopting Evidence-Based Medicine’ was commencing tomorrow in Karachi and would continue till Sunday, during which 92 scientific sessions would be held and latest research in the field of communicable ad NCDs would be presented.

“We are also going to launch an evidence-based medicine journal and an app to search appropriate treatment, intervention and medicine to help physicians in prescribing evidence-based medicines for their patients,” Prof Akram said.

In addition to equipping physicians with scientific knowledge, they were working for ethical training of the physicians and other health professionals, he said, adding that at the University of Health Sciences (UHS), doctors were being taught the Quran in the Urdu language, while recommendations of their conference would be published and disseminated among physicians throughout the country.

To a query, he said that although the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry was largely a “packaging industry” instead of a manufacturing industry, still it was providing quality medicines at affordable rates to people.

He shared that some of the sessions at their conference were aimed at teaching medical ethics for the physicians and healthcare professionals.

Another senior office-bearer of the PSIM, Prof Aftab Mohsin, said that of the one billion injections given to patients in Pakistan, over 90 per cent were administrated unnecessarily. He said that laws were needed to prevent the exploitation of patients in Pakistan.

Prof Eice Muhammad said medicine is a noble profession, and it was practised by prophets. He urged the physicians to consider their profession as worship for the betterment of their afterlife.

Eminent diabetologist Prof Zaman Shaikh, Dr Somia Iqtadar, Prof Aziz-ur-Rehman and others also spoke on the occasion and urged the physicians in Karachi to attend the 3rd Annual Conference of the PSIM being held at a hotel in Karachi.