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.