EVALUATION OF MEDICATION/DRUG USE RATIONALE AND IMPEDIMENTS DUE TO INFLUENCING PERCEPTION OF SELF-MEDICATION

Abstract

Self-medication is commonly understood to be the remedy of widespread health complications and specific ailments through medicines exclusively intended and labeled for usage without medical supervision, permitted and approved as innocuous and effective for such use. Though self-medication is foreseen commonly with Non-OTC (prescription) drugs also. Several of the causes for the amplified rate of self-medication includes the appeal to self-care, sentiment of sympathy for the family members in course of disease, scarcity of healthcare services, indigence, obliviousness, fallacies and widespread commercials on drugs and the accessibility of medicines in places other than drugstores. The precedent of self-treatment diverges in distinctive communities and affected by numerous factors such as expenses, income, age, gender, self-care orientation, education level, medical knowledge, fulfillment along with people's perception about the ailment. The most common diseases which were self-medicated were found to be fever, cold & cough, allergies, abdominal pain, dental caries, vomiting and headache. Findings unveiled that the utmost common remedy that was exploited by the subjects to self-medicate themselves for fever and headache was Paracetamol. Self-medication is widespread and frequent among students who are pursuing their studies in the medical or related fields, despite their knowledge about the possible negative impacts. In current protocol, we had investigated the patterns of self-medication among para-medical science undergraduates which assisted us to identify that negligence and lack of full information and awareness among the students can be fatal and life-threatening, regardless of their knowledge in the field of para-medical sciences.