Thais Overuse Medications, Research Finds

[george]

Thais overuse medications, research finds

BANGKOK: -- Thai people consume over Bt50 billion (US$1.3 billion) of medicines each year, a habit researchers found to be both unnecessary and inappropriate.

The findings were revealed in the process of reviewing Thailand's national list of over 900 essential drugs.

According to Dr. Piya Netwichien, a member of the review committee, Thais spend over Bt50 billion annually on medicines.

Medicine accounts for 35 per cent of health-related expenses incurred by Thais, compared to the range of 10-20 per cent in industrialised countries.

Despite such 'extravagance,' Dr. Piya said, Thais are not healthier than other nationals who spend less on medicine because such spending has gone both to inappropriate and expensive uses of medicine.

The World Health Organisation estimates that over half of the medicine being used worldwide are not properly prescribed, and only half of those using medicine are doing so properly.

The inappropriate use of medicine causes the loss of personal and societal resources as well as aggravating disease conditions.

Meanwhile research conducted by Dr. Supol Limwatana and a team from Khon Kaen University found that since the National Healthcare Plan was enforced in 2002, more people under the scheme have had access to high-cost medicines such as anti-retroviral for HIV-AIDS and medications for heart disease.

--TNA 2006-07-09

[penzman]

I wonder why the doctor nerver asks if you do have paracetemol at home, they always push me a dozen each time, along with some other pill AND another one to fight gastric acid. I could probably get along just fine with the one prescribed medicine for my shouldr problem. Good business and kickbacks I guess. I also find that antibiotics are prescribed way too often.

[johng]

When ever I have a cold ( common cold virus ) Thais allways ask if I have been to the doctor to get medicine to cure it...they are allways flabergasted when I say " no of course I haven't been to the doctor " as there is no (known) cure for the common cold.

They pop antibiotics like they are smarties... over prescibed far to much,especially for the common cold were antibiotics have no effect what so ever ( well maybe a placebo effect )

[petedk]

Yes, I get the same question if I have a slight sniffle or a headache: Have you been to the doctor? Most Thais I know seem to go to the doctor for the slightest illness and come back with many different brightly coloured pills. Most are probably completely unnecessary but I'm not a doctor so I don't know.

Incidentally I know a salesman at a pharmaceutical company and he told me that the doctors receive quite large amounts of money and other benefits for prescribing his company's medicine.

[John K]

Over use of antibiotics is bad in that only the super resistant strains will remain. Many people will use antibiotics hoping it is the answer.

Believe it or not there is a quick and simple test you can do to see if your sore throat will benefit from antibiotics. Simply clear your throat and spit on a tissue. If it is anything other than clear in particular yellow or green then antibiotics will help.

[leisurely]

What utter cobblers. Virus' too will produce coloured phlegm therefore, the only true way to know if antibiotics will help is to have the sputum cultured.

[astral]

Thais spend over Bt50 billion annually on medicines.

Medicine accounts for 35 per cent of health-related expenses incurred by Thais, compared to the range of 10-20 per cent in industrialised countries.

The person clearly has little idea about what goes on in other countries.

Medicine is remarkably cheap in Thailand

Here in the Middle East items are 3-5 times more expensive, as is hospital care.

In Eurpope and USA the discrepancy is much greater.

In Europe and USA you cannot just pop down the pharmacy for antibiotics and other

dangerous medicines, you must visit the doctor and pay him/her first before getting the

pills. Thai's are very lucky.

They also support the Thai Pharmaceutical industry, perhaps he forgot that side,

or they did not give him a kick back?

[OldAsiaHand]

I asked a very well educated Thai doctor once about all this. His reply was that Thais expected to get medication when they went to a doctor. If you didn't give it to them, they thought they weren't being treated properly. So he gave his patients medication. And the more medication he gave his patients, the happier they were. 'Sheer ignorance,' he said. 'But what am I going to do?'

[John K]

What utter cobblers. Virus' too will produce coloured phlegm therefore, the only true way to know if antibiotics will help is to have the sputum cultured.

Yes very right, what I was saying was relayed to my by my doctor several years ago. What I was implying was if it is clear using antibiotics is more than likely useless.

One thing I did note that in the states all of that takes time and the condition gets worse and you tend to suffer longer. It starts off by making an appointment to see your doctor. If you are lucky he may see you that day. Doing the culture and waiting for the results often another half day or longer, then you can finally get the antibiotics. So it can be easily two days while it just gets worse.

At least here you can start the antibiotics in Thailand and if the condition gets worse then do a follow up with a doctor. This is the same as over the counter methods used by many in the states. If you have a fever take some aspirin, you don’t need a doctor to tell you that. If the fever is persistent then followup with a doctor. The only thing different is antibiotics are available over the counter in Thailand.

[tourleadersi]

My wife had some pain fromher wisdom teeth, nothing serious but painful. I kept telling her to take some paracetamol but she kept refusing. Eventually I had had enough and asked her why she wouldn't take them.

"That medecine no good, it doesn't come from a doctor. How can it be any good if it is so cheap and you can get it at any 7-11?"

Finally she took some and grudgingly admitted that they helped a lot.

[Scott]

I never have much of a problem with my doctor. I really enjoy a nice "high", so I have specific drugs which I want. No, I don't need paracetemol, no, I don't need antibiotics--I like the heavy duty stuff. I usually can only get a couple of pain killers from the doctor and I don't get any of the other crap!

This hasn't cured me, but it sure has cured my doctor from overprescribing!