E-ISSN:2349-4166
P-ISSN:2349-4158

Editorial

Medication

Public Health Review - International Journal of Public Health Research

2015 Volume 2 Number 4 October-Decemebr
Publisherwww.medresearch.in

Self medication: Rising trends

Pandey D.1*, Gedam D.2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17511/ijphr.2015.i4.01

1* Dhruvendra Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, N.S.C.B. Medical College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.

2 D Sharad Gedam, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, L N Medical college, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Self-medication is rapidly evolving major public health concern. Pharmacists or pharmacy attendants play an important role in fostering self-medication among the public and this is supported with the increasing consultation cost.

Keywords: Analgesic, Health Education, Prevalence, Self Medication

Corresponding Author How to Cite this Article To Browse
Dhruvendra Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, N.S.C.B. Medical College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Email: 		Pandey D, Gedam DS. Self medication: Rising trends. Public Health Rev Int J Public Health Res. 2015;2(4):30-31.
Available From
https://publichealth.medresearch.in/index.php/ijphr/article/view/15

Self Medication means medication taken by self without consort. It is an old age practice but currently gain major public health concern. In developing countries like India most episodes of several illnesses were treated by self medication because of easy availability of a wide range of drugs and inadequate health services [1].

World Health Organization defines “Self medication as the use of drugs to treat self diagnosed disorders or symptoms or the intermittent or continued use of prescribed drug(s) for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms.” [2].

Simply it can be define as the consumption of medicinal products with the purpose of treating diseases or symptoms, or even promoting health, without a prescription provided by a medical professional. [3] or

Self-medication involves acquiring medicines without a prescription, resubmitting old prescriptions to purchase medicines, sharing medicines with relatives or members of one's social circle or using leftover medicines stored at home [4].

The Prevalence of self medication in India varies widely from 31% to 90%. [3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. It depends on many factors like nature of the disease, educational qualification of the person, non availability of the specialized person (during traveling), etc. [3]. Self Medication were consider common among singles, increase age, high educated patients, women and for short term relief of symptom [3, 7, 10].

This pattern varies from one community to another, and with individual characteristics. The commonest conditions that led to self-medication were headache, fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, musculoskeletal pain, minor

Manuscript Received Review Round 1 Review Round 2 Review Round 3 Accepted
Conflict of Interest Funding Ethical Approval Plagiarism X-checker Note
No Nil Yes 6%

© 2015 by Dhruvendra Pandey, D Sharad Gedam and Published by Siddharth Health Research and Social Welfare Society. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ unported [CC BY 4.0].

Public Health Review - International Journal of Public Health Research 2015;2(4)30
Pandey D. et al: Self medication: Rising trends

burns or bruises, gastrointestinal upset, skin problems, and dyspepsia [11]. The most commonly used medication were analgesics followed by antacids, antibiotics, nutritional supplements, cough syrups, contraceptives and antispasmodic. [10, 11]. Topical applications is found to be an important area in the practice [11]. In addition to allopathic medicines, it was also common in homeopathy and ayurveda [12]. Some other factors like Urge of self care, feeling of sympathy towards family members in sickness, lack of health services, poverty, ignorance, misbeliefs, extensive advertisement and use of drugs from informal sectors such as open markets and quacks, illegal purveyors of drugs (nonlicensed sellers in the market), etc are responsible for growing trend of self-medication [3, 8]. Inappropriate self medication could lead into Poisoning, allergy, habituation, addiction, dependence, wastage of resources and increased resistance of pathogen [3, 13]. The attitudes of some health professionals towards poly-pharmacy, contributed immensely in term of exposing the general public to a number of drugs and most importantly justifying their subsequent actions of abusing such drugs [13]. Health education is a important tool for this problem. Health education should be concentrated to aware the public about the health hazards of self medication. This awareness not only limited to general people but also involve doctors and pharmacist [7]. Provoking mass media activities by newspapers, radio, T.V, posters, messages at public places should be checked. Strict legislations should be implemented in banning advertisement and sale over the counter drugs without doctor's prescription. IEC activities should be strengthened to let know people about hazards of self-medication and for availing health services from Government which is free of cost [8]. Qualitative methods like focus group discussions and in depth interviews to know probe reasons for self medication could be carried out. [7]. Nowadays, trends are going toward self care. There are increasing demands from the public, government and within the medical profession for doctors to play a more active part in the promotion of self-care [12].

Reference

  1. Kulkarni PK, Khan M, Chandrasekhar A. Self Medication Practices among Urban Slum Dwellers In South Indian City. Int J Pharm Bio Sci. 2012;3(3)81–87.
  1. World Health Organization. Guidelines for the regulatory assessment of medicinal products for use in self medication WHODEDM/QSM/001. 2000.
  2. Kaushal J, Gupta MC, Jindal P, Verma S. Self-medication patterns and drug use behavior in housewives belonging to the middle income group in a city in northern India. Indian J Community Med. 2012;37;16-9.
  3. Loyola Filho AI, Lima-Costa MF, Uchôa E. Bambuí Project- a qualitative approach to self- medication. Cad Saude Publica. 20(6)1661–9.
  4. Shankar PR, Partha P, Shenoy N. Self-medication and non-doctor prescription practices in Pokhara valley, Western Nepal- a questionnaire-based study. BMC Family Practice. 2002; 17 Sept.
  5. Balmurugan E, Ganesh K. Prevalence of self-medication use in coastal regions of South India. British Journal of Medical Practitioners. 2011;4(3)a428.
  6. Chari HS, Kadeangadi DM, Mallapur MD. Practice of Self Medication Among Urban Households –A Community Based Cross Sectional Study. Ntl J of Community Med. 2015;6(2)93-96.
  7. Phalke V D, Phalke D B, Durgawale P M. Self-medication practices in rural Maharashtra. Indian J Community Med. 2006;31;34-5.
  8. RN, Jhaveri KS, Vyas FI, Patel VJ. Prevalence, pattern and perceptions of self medication in medical students. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2013;2;275-80.
  9. Figueiras A, Caamano F, Gestal-Otero J. Socio-demographic factors related to self-medication in Spain. Eur J Epidemiol. 2000;16;19-26.
  10. Worku S, Abebe G/Mariam. Practice of Self-medication in Jimma Town. Ethiop J Health Dev. 2003;17;111-6.

Public Health Review - International Journal of Public Health Research 2015;2(4)31
Pandey D. et al: Self medication: Rising trends
  1. World Health Organization (WHO). The use of essential drugs. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser. 1983;685;44-5.
  2. Lawan UM, Abubakar IS, Jibo AM, Rufai A. Pattern, awareness and perceptions of health hazards associated with self medication among adult residents of kano metropolis, northwestern Nigeria. Indian J Community Med. 2013;38;144-51.

Public Health Review - International Journal of Public Health Research 2015;2(4)32