Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines

Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines ar drugs you plenty buy without a prescription comp bed to prescription drugs, which may further be sold to consumers with a prescription. near OTC medicines relieve aches, agonys and itches. Some prevent or cure diseases, like tooth decay and athletes foot. Others help allot recurring problems, like migraines. When it comes to palming such prevalent ailments as coughs and colds, fever, heartburn, and aches and pains, people be using to a greater extent types of non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines than ever before.Once consisting of a relatively downhearted number of medications, OTC medicines now account for the majority of all medications used, including many a(prenominal) that were once available only by prescription. There are more(prenominal) than 100,000 OTC products on the market today, and the market is worth 500million-plus a class and is growing every year. Some of the most common examples of OTC drugs are pain reliev ers, antihistamines, cough medicines. Pain relievers are medicines used to dispense pain caused by any number of conditions. They dissolve be used to treat headaches, joint pain, muscle cramps or minor injuries.Some examples of OTC painkillers are Anacin acetaminophen and Excedrin. Generic versions of these brand-name medications mess also be found. Some generic examples al subaltern in aspirin, ibuprofen, and ketoprofen. Antihistamines are medications used to treat or prevent the symptoms of allergies. OTC antihistamines kitty be divided into two types first and second generation. Some examples of first-generation antihistamines are Dimetapp, Benadryl. Second-generation examples include Claritin and Zyrtec. While both(prenominal) types can be used to treat allergies, first-generation antihistamines can also be used to treat colds. Both types can be mixed with other medications, such as painkillers, to treat approximately(prenominal) symptoms at once.OTC cough medicines are split into two separate categories antitussives and expectorants. Antitussives place as cough suppressants. They relieve coughing fits by blocking the instinctive reflex to cough. Expectorants thin the mucus that causes coughing, making it easier to break up and lessening the sequence of the cough. Examples of OTC antitussives include Triaminic Cold and Cough and Robitussin Cough. Examples of OTC expectorants include Mucinex and Robitussin chest Congestion. The benefits of OTC drugs are the costs to the patients and the NHS.People seeking relief from symptoms of common ailments and some diseases can avoid the costof a doctors visit by purchase OTC drugs and can still lease confidence that the medicine meets prerequisite criteria. Also, OTC drugs are generally less expensive than prescription medicines this both benefitting the NHS and the patient. Some problems with OTC drugs have arisen with patients abusing ovOTCr the counter drugs. They are readily available to the general public. According to the National Survey on Drug utilise and Health, the number of people abusing prescription and OTC drugs jumped from 4.7 million to 6.9 million among 2005 and 2007.OTC drugs are deemed safe if used as directed. stock-still, it seems clear that not everyone is succeeding(a) the directions. A big reason OTC drug abuse is everyday is because these drugs are comingible and relatively cheap. Many people already have OTC drugs in their medicine cabinets or cupboards. There is no want to hide the drugs for fear of raising suspicions or getting arrested. Illegal drugs, which can produce the same effect as OTC drugs, are more dangerous to obtain and typically more costly. As well as abuse of OTC drugs theres addiction Alone, codeine phosphate is only available on prescription. But it has been available OTC in low doses and in combination with aspirin, paracetamol, or ibuprofen for many years.The most common addiction is to the OTC drug Solpadeine a combination of paracetamol and codeine. There are 4,000 known people registered that are currently have this problem. In certainty OTC drugs can have there pluses and negatives on the general public. It saves a lot of NHS money by having over the counter drugs by parsimoniousness a lot of doctors time for minor ailments. However there have been a lot of problems with abuse and addictions that have arose from this mocking where some are safe for patients to be getting such access to.