Mélina Facchin // photo credit: Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
You may have many medicine boxes lying around in your bathroom cupboard. Sometimes you don’t even know what they are for and some are out of date. You are not alone! The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) published a study on Wednesday on how the French consume their pills and medicinal syrups. And some numbers are quite worrying.
“The expiry date was in 2019, that’s ok!”
As with many French people, the medicine cabinet of Thomas, a thirty-year-old from Strasbourg, is overflowing. “That, I imagine it’s syrup for the bronchi. Oh, Doliprane, I’ll put it aside!”, He said, rummaging through a box full to bursting.
The young man has forgotten what some of his medications are for. The most common, he knows them: “This one, I know I can take if I have a stomach ache,” he explains. “But the expiration date was in 2019, that’s fine!” He says smiling. “I always heard that taking a drug after the expiry date was not serious and that in the end, it’s just the effects that can be reduced”.
One in three French people thinks like Thomas, according to the study by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM). However, in addition to effectively losing effectiveness, certain expired medications, especially liquids (eye drops, syrups, etc.), can be contaminated with bacteria.
“Harmful side effects” or even “an addiction” for the patient
Thomas also admits, like three out of ten French people, that he “does not always complete his treatments”, which is obviously not recommended. “When a doctor prescribes, for example, eight days of antibiotics, the treatment must be completed to prevent the disease from coming back and we can no longer treat the person”, assures Lisa, a pharmacist opposite the train station. Strasbourg.
What worries him above all is the overdose or the mixture of drugs: one in five French people say they use it according to this study. “This leads to certain side effects which can be harmful for the patient”, explains the pharmacist. “And if, for example, we take painkillers in too high doses, we can become resistant to the drug, even addicted. We have a really very high risk of addiction,” she adds.
Similarly, the ANSM recalls that drugs are prescribed by a professional, on a case-by-case basis. One in two French people say they give medicine to a loved one if they suffer from the same symptoms as themselves.