We are so used to grabbing a bottle of drops from the pharmacy that we have no doubt: they will only bring benefits. But is this really so?

The Burden of Lightness

Before the eyes of many colleagues of the design bureau, the tragedy of the intelligent, educated 45-year-old Elena, smart and beautiful, unfolded. She was so responsible, so concerned about her work and cared about her family and children, that she often broke down, unable to withstand the endless tension, stress and emotional stress. To control herself, the woman began to drip valerian, hawthorn and motherwort in alcohol to calm her down. Before important events, I relieved tension with these means. And at first no one noticed her problems.

But trouble happened - her son was in a car accident, received numerous fractures, and miraculously survived. In a small dose, the drops quickly stopped helping. Elena became firmly hooked on “easy” over-the-counter drugs from the pharmacy. Lost my job. She received treatment from narcologists. Now it is with great difficulty that he returns to normal life.

People grab the “bubble” for various reasons. Some to calm the heart, and some after a heavy binge. There are also those who switch to such tinctures after quitting drugs. Former drug addicts are deprived of sleep for a long time, so they find salvation in increased doses of sedatives containing alcohol and phenobarbital.

Pharmacy alcoholism: early in the morning

Moreover, these funds are very affordable. In any 24-hour pharmacy, even at night, it is not a problem to purchase all kinds of medicinal infusions of hawthorn, St. John's wort, motherwort, calendula, peony, propolis, pepper, mint, valerian, plantain, lemongrass, eucalyptus, ginseng, eleutherococcus, etc. They are perceived by many people as natural miracle cures for all diseases. But this is the same alcohol, only in a more attractive shell, which is not particularly advertised. Although the use of herbal tinctures prescribed by a specialist in the prescribed dosage can be an aid to the main therapy, their consumption in uncontrolled quantities is unacceptable: in addition to alcohol intoxication, accumulation of the active substance in the body can occur, which is very dangerous.

The pharmacy in the capital's Uruchye-6 microdistrict is located in the same building as the store. It is very convenient for residents of nearby yards - in one fell swoop you can stock up on groceries and grab something for your health. But the administration of the supermarket probably doesn’t like this kind of proximity. The fairly extensive wine and vodka department is suffering losses. The famous public with their heads held high walks past the hospitably open doors and counters lined with bottles, rushing towards the green sign with a white cross. A citizen urgently needs to improve his health after a sleepless night, but the wet bills clenched in his fist are not enough even for the “bastard” vodka. But for a bottle of alcohol-containing tincture it’s fine.

The trash can on the porch is full of mini glass containers. 40-year-old Nikolai leaves the pharmacy and immediately “gets better” with the contents of a dark glass bottle, as they say, without leaving the cash register. Catches my reproachful glance.

This is medicine,” he tries to humor. It is clear that the interlocutor did not resolve the moral dilemma of drinking alcohol with a healing effect yesterday. - And how much did I drink, just a gram?! Don’t think, I’m not some kind of complete “bruise.” Well, I can’t go into the cafeteria now and buy some goods there with “bodrilov” - I’ve lived here half my life, all the sellers know me...

It’s a shame for a person to fall into the category of alcoholics, so he’s “encrypted.” I must say, quite effectively. Nikolai is neatly dressed and clean-shaven. And it smells not of a suffocating fume, but of that very pharmacy - quite pleasant and a little sympathetic. Taking a breath, he makes a final “salvo” and carefully places the bottle next to the overflowing trash can.

“Lamivit.” Volume - 100 ml. Those who want to really get treatment will probably be interested in the copper chlorophyll complex and, for example, vitamin A included in the drug. Nikolai is more interested in the accompanying ingredients - 95 percent alcohol and a flavoring that hides its smell. Lemonade, and that's all!

The morning dose of “Lamivit” specifically for Nikolai is one bottle. Roughly speaking, half a bottle of vodka for only 12 thousand rubles.

There will probably be more of these in the center. Especially where on-duty pharmacies work around the clock. It demonstrates an assortment that is especially revered by locals - in addition to the popular “Lamivit”, hawthorn tincture attracts with its strength (70%) at 8 thousand rubles for 50 ml. Here are alcohol-containing bottles of motherwort and calendula sold without a doctor's prescription:

- Don’t even look for “Muscovy”. We don't hold it. I only heard from colleagues that nowadays they are selling out in whole packages.

What kind of “Muscovy” is this? The Internet provides comprehensive information. Relatively new brand. 100 milliliters of almost pure alcohol (96%) can be purchased for just over 12 thousand rubles. The popularity of the tincture is also given by the official definition - “balm”, which some firmly associate with a tasty alcoholic drink.

Without any special mark

Psychiatrist and narcologist Vyacheslav Petrov, who has been saving people after drinking bouts for many years, says:

From experience working with patients with alcohol addiction, I will say: when a person reeks of alcohol, those around him look at him disapprovingly. And if with heartfelt drops, then with undisguised sympathy, they say, he feels bad. Many of those who drink these tinctures are still working, socially active, and it is not permissible for them to show up at work “under the influence,” much less drink at the workplace. These drugs are used in uncontrolled quantities by people already dependent on alcohol. They are not particularly different from the others. Such lovers, as a rule, need at least a couple of bottles to feel intoxicated, and to eliminate the discomfort of withdrawal, one bottle is enough, sometimes even on the way to work.

Since the cost of alcohol is low, pharmaceutical companies make good profits, and pharmacies are not at a loss either. People seem to be being treated, but the therapeutic power of these drugs is very insignificant, says Vyacheslav Petrov. If you add a flavoring agent identical to, for example, valerian or hawthorn, to alcohol, the effect for such “sick people” will be the same. Because for people who use these products in bottles and not drops, the main thing is the degree. For those who want to be treated, there is an alternative - for example, medications in tablet form containing extracts of valerian, hawthorn, motherwort, etc. Dispensing alcohol-containing medications strictly can change the situation for the better and stop the uncontrolled and unjustified use of such medications according to a doctor's prescription, as well as expert, well-founded work to clarify the following question: what is the therapeutic effectiveness of these tinctures? Or maybe they have long been obsolete as medicines?

Depending on the drop

I agree with my colleague and psychiatrist-narcologist, head of the 4th narcological department of the Minsk City Clinical Narcological Dispensary Valery Kravets, in whose practice there are a lot of memorable cases:

Every week we get at least 2-3 people who abuse such tinctures. Many of these patients are women. They all want to get rid of addiction, but such treatment is a difficult and lengthy process, after all, it is a chronic mental illness. Such poor fellows usually suffer from trembling and chills, are bothered by sweating, their hearts are pounding, and their blood pressure is jumping.

Here are some drops for you! It would seem, what's wrong with them? The problem is that a person who is looking for salvation in such alcohol-based products expects a permanent effect. At first, this is what happens - even a small dose helps, which lasts only a few hours, and then the number of drops has to be increased.

Unlike drug addiction, such addiction develops more slowly, which is why people do not notice changes in their condition, explains Valery Kravets. However, if you compare alcohol and alcohol tinctures, then with sedatives, addiction develops faster due to the side effects of seemingly harmless herbs. After excessive doses, people experience apathy and anxiety, more severe than after drinking alcoholic beverages.

The doctor recalled a case from practice, how a respectable family - a husband, son and daughter - brought their mother, a very beautiful and well-groomed woman, for treatment. She was so upset that they wouldn’t give her a new role in the theater that she often began to take it “drop by drop.” The lack of demand in the profession sowed depression, depression and despondency. The woman was plagued by debilitating insomnia. At first, the actress drank motherwort and hawthorn, but later became addicted to barboval to sleep. Her gaze dimmed and her skin became pale. The lady looked so unimportant that it was immediately noticed in the theater. Problems started at work. I had to say goodbye to my existing role in the play.

Psychiatrists had the opportunity to work with this woman twice. The first time the treatment did not go smoothly, the second time it was more successful. For a year and a half now, the former patient has not asked for help. And although there is an opinion that female alcoholism is more difficult to treat, specialists achieve the best results with female patients, because they are more motivated to save their family, not lose children and work, and also beauty, which is also very important to them.

But still, more often than not, people with physical and mental health already destroyed by alcohol, who are poorly provided for, get hooked on these funds, like on a needle, sighs Valery Kravets.

More dangerous than vodka

Even more insidious are barbiturates, which quickly become addictive. And not alcohol, but barbituric acid, which they contain. In the former USSR, there were very strong traditions of self-medication and low trust in official medicine, which resulted in a huge consumption of over-the-counter drugs containing phenobarbital, - Professor Roman Evsegneev, head of the Department of Psychiatry and Narcology of the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, is concerned about the current situation. - These are Corvalol, Valocardin, Valoserdin, Barboval, Andipal and others.

Meanwhile, phenobarbital causes euphoria. 10-15 minutes after administration, relaxation, lethargy, and slight intoxication occur. And if you drown your troubles in a glass with these drops over and over again, a disease appears that is worse than anxiety itself - addiction to barbiturates.

When older people constantly calm their hearts with the help of these drugs, they lose the ability to understand the world, their memory weakens, and coordination of movements also decreases and the risk of falls increases, the professor continues. Is this why old people are so often plagued by injuries? And that's not it! A kind of hangover occurs, as in patients with alcoholism, which is washed down with a new portion of phenobarbital. Therefore, it is very difficult for many people to give up these funds.

However, these drugs, which are the first choice for anxiety and depression, are cheap and available in every pharmacy. But the fact that they quickly cause addiction, addiction and dependence in a large number of people is known only to specialists. Therefore, the population still drinks Valocordin, Corvalol, etc. And in large quantities! Think about the numbers: in 2007, 2008, and 2009, more than 1.5 million packages of Corvalol were sold per year in our country. The listed drugs are among the top ten sales leaders, states the practicing scientist. In Western Europe, barbiturates have not been used for almost half a century. It is impossible to imagine that a German, a Frenchman or an Englishman, who had a heart attack, would grab a bottle with such drops. People there know: this is extremely dangerous.

All specialists who have to work, treat and save people addicted to alcohol, tinctures and phenobarbital are unanimous in their opinion: it’s time to put a barrier in the way of these drugs. It is necessary to include medicines containing ethyl alcohol and phenobarbital in the list of drugs dispensed strictly according to doctor’s prescriptions. Such a measure will sharply hit the uncontrolled sales of tinctures.

OPINIONS

Mikhail Kevra, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of BSMU:

- Near the building of the institution where I work, there are several pharmacies. This spring, when the snow melted, the entire area adjacent to them was littered with empty bottles of alcohol tinctures. Vodka is expensive, moonshine is illegal, and pharmaceutical alcohol is pure, unlike cologne, which is why such products are popular among drunkards.

By the way, both hawthorn and motherwort can seriously affect health. Hawthorn is used in small quantities as an antiarrhythmic and cardiac sedative. If the dose is exceeded, it will have a toxic effect on the heart muscle. And with long-term use in large doses, it slows down the heart rate and lowers blood pressure, which is also dangerous.

Motherwort and valerian have a more pronounced calming effect than hawthorn. After taking, for example, valerian tincture, the muscles relax very much. A man has been drinking today, but tomorrow he has to go. Without knowing this, he gets behind the wheel. Because the muscles are relaxed, his reaction will be slow. Such a driver is dangerous for all road users.

These tinctures should only be taken at the recommended dose. But how many people read the instructions? In EU countries such products are also produced. Somewhere they are sold according to prescriptions, somewhere freely. But in the West everything is different. And we love to self-medicate, prescribing medications for ourselves without thinking about the consequences. And this often ends badly, which everyone needs to be reminded of.

Anna Blazhko, pensioner:

- Such funds should be freely available. Normal people, not alcoholics and drunkards, cannot suffer because of people who like to drink. For example, I prepare myself a cocktail of valerian, hawthorn and motherwort in alcohol, which I occasionally drink to calm me down when my heart beats fast. Do we really have to run to the doctor for a prescription and waste time in line for each bottle?

In my opinion, the pharmacist sees who he is selling the sedative to, and can refuse those who want to get a hangover. But this does not happen, because pharmacies benefit from increased sales; they are interested in making a profit.

Hypertonic disease. Home encyclopedia Malysheva Irina Sergeevna

Pharmacy tinctures

Pharmacy tinctures

1. Tincture of elecampane roots 1:5. Take 50–60 drops 3 times a day before meals for 7 days.

2. Tincture of marina root 1:5. Take 20-30 drops 3-4 times a day before meals for 7 days.

3. Hawthorn tincture. Take 50–60 drops 3 times a day before meals.

4. Tincture of skullcap Baikal. Take 20-30 drops 2-3 times a day before meals.

5. Black cohosh tincture. Take 50–60 drops 2–3 times a day before meals.

6. Motherwort tincture. Take 20–40 drops 3 times a day before meals.

7. Tincture of Japanese Sophora. Take 30 drops 3 times a day before meals.

Two more recipes related to the parallel use of several medications purchased at a pharmacy.

Recipe 1. You need to purchase an alcohol tincture of calendula, raunatin tablets (it consists of three herbs), green tea, definitely Chinese: 0.5 tsp. Brew green tea in 1/2 cup boiling water, steep, cool until ready to drink. Add 15–20 drops of calendula tincture there. Take a Raunatin tablet with this infusion. First day - drink 1 time, 2nd day - 2 times (morning and evening), 3rd day - 3 times (morning, afternoon and evening), 4th day - 2 times, 5th day - 1 once. Drink 30 minutes after eating. And in the future, if you feel unwell, immediately brew green tea with calendula tincture and take a raunatin tablet.

Recipe 2. Take 100 ml of pharmaceutical tinctures: valerian, peony, hawthorn, motherwort and add to them 50 ml of eucalyptus tincture and 25 ml of mint tincture. Place this mixture in a half-liter bottle and add 10 g of clove buds (the one we use in everyday life as a spicy aromatic remedy) into it. Leave the mixture in a dark place for two weeks, shaking occasionally. Take the medicine 3-4 times a day, 15-20 minutes before meals, 20-25 drops. The tincture can be dripped onto a piece of sugar, diluted or washed down with water. The possibilities of this unique “cocktail” are very wide: it lowers intracranial pressure and normalizes blood pressure, has antispasmodic and anticonvulsant effects, helps with varicose veins of peripheral vessels, with venous stagnation, improves cerebral circulation, prevents the formation of blood clots, stimulates hematopoiesis and even has an antitumor effect. A particularly good therapeutic result is felt with tachycardia and arrhythmia, increased blood and intracranial pressure, and various neuroses. The amount of tincture that is obtained after “merging” all the ingredients, with regular daily use, is enough for a course of treatment. You can take the medicine from time to time, i.e. as needed. Then the “cocktail” can be “stretched out” for 2–3 years. Its healing properties are preserved.