Dangers Of Self Medicating With Internet Drugs

Medicinal drugs bought over the internet can cause severe damage, doctors warned today.

August 14, 2006

Drs Philip Severn and Scott Fraser from the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, UK highlight the case of a woman whose eyesight was severely affected after taking drugs she bought on the internet.

The patient, a 64-year-old woman, sought help for vision problems she had experienced for the previous six months. She was diagnosed with glaucoma and cataract, which the doctors traced back to use of a steroid for self-diagnosed chronic fatigue syndrome.

In this week’s Lancet, the doctors write: "The patient disclosed that she had been purchasing oral steroids from an online pharmaceutical company based in Thailand. She had started therapy 4 years ago."

The authors decided to further investigate the availability of drugs on the internet, and found it was easy to purchase the steroid in question, prednisolone. They warn that drugs bought in this way may not be genuine, and even if they are, should only be taken under medical supervision.

"Patients are now able to browse the internet and purchase medications freely," they write. "Practitioners need to be more aware of the problems associated with self-directed internet-purchased medication."

The expansion of the internet can be positive in terms of patients seeking information, they add, "however, the online availability of controlled and uncontrolled drug therapies needs to be carefully monitored".

Severn, P. S. and Fraser, S. G. Bilateral cataracts and glaucoma induced by long-term use of oral prednisolone bought over the internet. Lancet, Vol. 368, August 12, 2006, p. 618.