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It’s an easy reference check you can do — open the medicine box you have at home and count the number of drugs you actually bought on prescription. Chances are that all the antidotes you have in there, for fever, cold, cough, indigestion, headache, constipation, painkillers etc, were bought over the counter. A few other antibiotics in the box may remind you of the indiscriminate advice on dosage your friendly neighbourhood chemist gave you. Worse is when the chemist doesn’t hesitate to administer a full course of medication over the counter, just as doctors do.

Well, if you thought that you don’t really need to consult a doctor for common ailments it might help to read on.

In India, according to a study done by Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, fever, headache, general body pain, knee-joint pain, vomiting and asthma are some of the illnesses for which people take medicines on their own.

“Only a few drugs such as antipyretics, antacids, multi-vitamins, and cough suppressants belong to the OTC (over-the-counter) category. Most others, like antibiotics, tranquillisers, cardiac drugs, hypnotising drugs and several analgesics or painkillers, belong to Schedule H category, and therefore shouldn’t be sold without prescription,” says Sushum Sharma, HoD, Preventive Health Program and senior consultant Internal Medicine at Max Healthcare in Delhi. He adds that even OTC drugs should be used only in an emergency and that too in the lowest possible denominator. The doctor must be contacted soon after.

Self-medication becomes risky when some disease, unknown to the patient, gets suppressed for a long time. For instance, what you consider to be fever, can turn out to be dengue, a recurring headache can actually be meningitis, what you perceive as simple knee pain might be a severe orthopaedic problem, says Sharma.

“Parents need to be particularly careful in case of administering drugs to children below the age of two. Most people, for instance, take cough and cold casually. Even non-concentrated cough and cold formulations are easily available over-the-counter. In the US these medications have been linked to a significant number of adverse effects like convulsions, rapid heart rates, and unconsciousness and several deaths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommend against their use for children less than two years old,” says Rajiv Chabbra, Consultant Paediatric and Neonatal Intensivist, Artemis Health Institute.