WFPMM Hears Self-Medication Warning

18 November 1996

Flourishing self-medication markets with heavy competitive promotion using comparative claims, and potent drugs available as various branded products, confuse the consumer and can mean risks for responsible, safe and rational self-medication, Juhana Idanpaan-Heikkila, director of the division of drug management and policies at the World Health Organization, told the World Federation of Proprietary Medicines Manufacturers' meeting in Toronto, Canada.

Increased access to self-medication carries both benefits and risks, so implications for safer drug use, content of consumer information, promotion and the risks of excessive and non-medical use should be considered carefully, she said. No drug is absolutely safe, she added, and noted recent examples of drugs with reasonable safety documentation, such as non-sedative antihistamines (terfenadine and astemizole) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, being deregulated and then rescheduled because of unexpected safety problems with self-medication.

About 190 WHO member states have adopted the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion for prescription and non-prescription drugs, she said; the Criteria are a recommendation both to governments for implementation and to the industry on proper and responsible behavior in drug promotion.

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