DRUG FACTS

Prescription & Over-The-Counter-Drugs

Prescription drugs are medications that are prescribed by a doctor to cure or treat diseases or illnesses such as common infections or even cancer. These drugs have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and found to have medical benefits when prescribed and taken exactly as directed by a health provider.

However, the FDA also warns that prescription drugs can be dangerous or even lethal when taken without a prescription or not taken as directed by the health provider or the packaging. To ensure the safety of the patient, the FDA requires prescriptions or detailed directions on the packaging to make sure the patient takes these drugs as intended. The very reason that these drugs require a prescription or detailed directions is because these drugs can be dangerous if they are not taken as directed.

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medications that you can buy at a pharmacy without a prescription and are used to treat an illness such as the common cold. However, like prescription drugs, OTC drugs can be dangerous or lethal if not taken as directed by the packaging. Taking prescription or OTC drugs not as directed by the prescribing health provider or not as directed by the packaging is not safe – and can lead to addiction or death.

You should never share drugs, increase or decrease dosage or frequency, or take prescription or OTC drugs in a way that’s different from how they are prescribed by your doctor or recommended according to the label. You never know how it could affect you. Also, don’t mix prescription or OTC drugs with other substances, including alcohol, because it can lead to dangerous drug interactions.

When abused, prescription and OTC drugs can be just as dangerous as illicit drugs. Side effects of prescription drugs and withdrawal from them varies with the drug abused, but common effects include poor concentration, disorientation, apathy, feelings of confusion, addiction, anxiety, hostility and aggression, respiratory depression, dizziness, slurred speech, excessive sweating, nausea and vomiting, tremors, convulsions, lack of energy, increased heart rate and breathing, heart attacks, coma, and death.^{55 56 57 58}

The health risks of abusing OTC cough and cold remedies include impaired judgment/nausea, loss of coordination, panic attacks, psychosis, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, insomnia, addiction, restlessness, numbness of fingers and toes, abdominal pain, irregular heartbeat, aches, cold flashes, high blood pressure, seizures, coma, and death.⁵⁹ These risks can occur when these drugs are taken in very high dosages.

Many of these drugs can be addicting. Between 1995 and 2005, treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 300 percent.⁶⁰