Internists warn of over-the-counter rheumatic drugs
Internists warn of over-the-counter rheumatic drugs
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Health experts have warned people to be extremely cautious in
using over-the-counter drugs to treat rheumatism, arguing that
uncontrolled and excessive use of such drugs often leads to acute
erosive gastritis.
"Every month we've been treating two to three cases of acute
erosive gastritis due to uncontrolled use of antirheumatic
drugs," said Sutanto Maduseno, an internist at Dr. Sardjito
Hospital in Yogyakarta.
According to www.emedicine.com, acute gastritis is not a
disease on its own but, rather, a group of disorders that induce
inflammatory changes in the gastric mucosa.
The inflammation may involve the entire stomach (pangastritis)
or a region of the stomach (e.g., antral gastritis). Acute
gastritis can be broken down into the following additional
categories: erosive (e.g., hemorrhagic erosions, superficial
erosions, deep erosions) and nonerosive (generally caused by
Helicobacter pylori).
Sutanto, who was speaking at a press conference with fellow
internist cum-rheumatic consultant Nyoman Kertia, said that acute
erosive gastritis caused pain in the pit of the stomach and was
accompanied by vomiting blood.
"In many cases, the patient's condition is so bad that they
need a blood transfusion," Sutanto said.
The symptoms, according to Sutanto, were mainly caused by the
combination of a painkiller and antiinflammatory agents that an
antirheumatic medicine usually has.
"The side effects of antirheumatic drugs are very bad,
especially for patients having problems with their duodenum," he
said, adding that most herbal medicine sold freely in the market
also contained similar elements as antirheumatic medicine.
Both internists advised people not to take antirheumatic drugs
for painful joints. Joint pain, they said, was not always an
indication of rheumatism.
"There are some 100 different sickness related to human bones
and joints. It's very risky to make a self diagnosis. Taking
medicine without a doctor's prescription, similarly, can make the
rheumatic-like symptoms even worse," said Nyoman Kertia, who is
also chairman of 2005 national congress of the association of
Indonesian rheumatologists to be held in Yogyakarta from June 30
to July 3.
In its bid to educate the public on the various illness linked
to joints and bones, the congress will also hold a series of
symposiums, workshops and courses on rheumatism and other related
problems including the use of herbal medicine to deal with
rheumatism and osteoporosis.
Open to the public as well as the medical community, the
symposiums and workshops expect to attract some 750 participants
including domestic and foreign experts as speakers. Foreign
experts expected to join the symposiums include those from
Europe, the U.S., the Philippines and Singapore.
"We expect to have many participants from the public,
especially considering the negative impacts of the illness, which
causes disability," said Nyoman, adding that 2001-2010 had been
named the decade of rheumatic and bone diseases.