- Joined
- Aug 11, 2020
Might not be true everywhere, but antibiotics usually are prescription only because self-medication with antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance. If people just take them for as long as they feel like it (as opposed to a prescribed course), some of the bacteria may survive and become resistant to it; not only you'll likely get the infection again, the same antibiotic may not work.Why the shit is amoxicillin prescription only anyways? It's not a narcotic, you can't get high from it, and there's no abuse potential.
And amoxicillin being so common is one of the ones at most risk to become ineffective this way. More so with people being only too happy to use antibiotics for things that aren't treated with them, like viral infections.
Also antibiotics tend to have secondary effects you gotta be careful with. Like they'll affect your intestinal flora and so on.
Incidentally, I've seen antibiotics being prescribed for their side effects rather than for an infection, like some are very good to reduce inflammation, so they can be prescribed to people with inflammatory diseases, skin conditions, or swollen injuries.
Edit: I posted this and IMMEDIATELY got a YouTube recommendation for a video about antibiotic resistance. Fucking hell.
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