Ibuprofen is now fifty years old. The linked article then goes on to tell us that alongside aspirin and paracetamol, it is a medicine we carry bout with us and keep in the bathroom medicine cabinet as a routine. we self medicate. Nothing wrong with that. However, some experts have knack of disagreeing with even the most mundane of issues.
But some, like Stuttaford, also take issue with the use of ibuprofen as a sort of medical crutch.
He believes that governments have encouraged the use of anti-inflammatories and analgesic drugs like ibuprofen because it cuts down on visits to casualty departments and doctors’ surgeries.
I wasn’t aware that government had anything to do with encouraging us to use analgesics.
“Advice from doctors used to be ‘take two aspirin and call me in the morning’. Now the modern day equivalent is ‘take two ibuprofen and call me in the morning’.”
Dr Stuttaford says he does not think this is terribly useful.
“Pain is nature’s way of telling you something is amiss. I don’t approve of over-the-counter patient-directed painkillers – it’s much better to get a proper assessment of the pain from a doctor.”
Riiiight. So, you wake up the morning after and your head is hammering like a black country foundry. Your body is telling you that you had too much of the good stuff the night before. You do not need to see your GP to work this out and your GP would not thank you for wasting time on such matters. Likewise with most small ailments that require a generic painkiller. I suffer from back pain from time to time and get headaches. Should I go rushing to my GP? By the time I get an appointment, the pain will have gone anyway. I don’t even bother her with my migraines. I take the necessary medicine and go to bed. I know what the problem is and can buy the treatment over the counter. No need to have the cause analysed, I know what the cause is.
The one thing GPs don’t need is a waiting room full of people who only need to take a couple of aspirin or ibuprofen. It is Dr Stuttaford’s advice that is unhelpful, frankly.
Ibuprofen saved me recently when I was suffering from a fractured collarbone (still am a bit).
My theory is that GPs just want to see different people. They are bone-weary of attending to the usual malingerers…..
CR.
Mine has seen more of me in the past year than in the previous decade or so. That’s because I have to go back every so often for repeat prescriptions. They have to do a follow up after so many, I think.
I reckon Dr Stuttaford doesn’t live in the same country as us lot, or maybe he’s on a different plane of existence. (Or maybe he has a nifty and expensive private physician whom he can see at the drop of a hat, or maybe he just heals himself).
Sure, it would *theoretically* be better to see a doctor about every [big and] little thing, but in practice? Simply impossible. As LR states, self-medication is often the more logical option as the wait just to see a GP means that a headache will have gone (or will have killed you) before your appointment about it actually comes around. Stuttaford’s insinuation, that we plebs bypass seeing a GP because of some reluctance on our own part, is really quite offensive.
‘They have to do a follow up after so many, I think’ – that’s the case for me, too.
I’ll be wasting a GP’s time tomorrow because I need a medication review for salbutamol inhalers and co-codamol. The first, obviously, is for asthma, and the second is for osteoarthritis from a knee injury I sustained thirteen years ago.
Both are chronic conditions and so I’ll walk out with the same repeat prescriptions that I had before. I’m just sorry that I’ll have wasted five to ten minutes of the doctor’s time and taken up the slot that someone else could have had.
Yes, I believe that’s the case – to check if the situation is still the same.
When we’ve all given up booze, nicotine, caffine, salt, sugar and fat, and we’re all living forever, ailment free, the doctors will be glad of the work
So a registered Doctor wants everyone possible to consult a registered doctor about everything vaguely relevant to his paid profession? Presumably he also wants us all to consult a qualified accountant to check every bill- and does so himself.
Doctors, and Accountants, are paid to provide knowledge.
There is no market for knowledge that is universally available.
Dr. Stuttaford should recognise that once a patient has learned how to treat his problems he has no further need of a doctor
“…because it cuts down on visits to casualty departments…”
Well how else are they going to get their ‘alcohol related admissions’ above the 2 million mark so they can justify increasing the minimum pricing up to £1?