Q: Should we be worried about people buying medicines on the internet?

Researchers in Australia surfed the web and found 104 sites in 13 different countries where they could obtain Sudafed and St John’s wort products. The researchers later received products from 27 of these websites. They concluded that the quality of information was poor. Only 63 of the sites had any information, and there were some potentially dangerous omissions: only three suppliers of the St John’s wort provided adequate warnings on the several known dangerous interactions. “We conclude that internet technologies should be used to develop ethical and innovative practice models that make the management of medications for consumers easier, simpler, and safer to achieve positive health outcomes, but surfing and self-medicating is currently not safe”. See page 88

▸ ACTION POINT

Patients may …