A headache in the morning, a bout of fever by evening and for millions of people, the response is the same: walk into the nearest pharmacy, describe the symptom, and walk out with a strip of tablets. No prescription, no doctor’s visit, no questions asked. This practice, known as self-medication, has quietly become one of the most widespread health behaviours of our time and increasingly, one of the most worrying.
The World Health Organization defines self-medication as the practice of treating a health problem on one’s own, using medicine without consulting a doctor or other health professional. It isn’t always harmful — buying a paracetamol for a mild headache is a form of responsible self-care. The concern begins when the practice becomes routine, unsupervised, and applied to conditions or drugs that genuinely need a professional’s judgement.
Self-medication is an important public health problem, with varied prevalence across the world. The high prevalence of self-medication in India is one of the important factors contributing to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Self-medication without medical guidance can lead to inappropriate, incorrect, or undue therapy, missed diagnosis, delays in appropriate treatment, pathogen resistance, and increased morbidity. The growing trend of self-medication can be attributed to various factors like the urge for self-care, sympathy toward sick family members, inaccessible health services and non-availability of drugs, time and financial constraints, ignorance, misbeliefs, extensive advertisement and availability of drugs in places other than drug shops.
Practiced globally, self-medication is an important public health problem, with prevalence ranging from 11.7% to 92% across the world. World Health Organization (WHO) has defined self-medication as the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms or, the intermittent or continued use of prescribed drugs for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms. In practice, it also includes the use of the medication of family members, especially where the treatment of children or the elderly is involved. The practice of self-medication is widely prevalent in developing countries like India where there is relatively easy access to a wide range of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs with proven efficiency and safety. The high prevalence of self-medication in India is one of the important factors attributing to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Furthermore, it can also cause serious health hazards, leading to prolonged suffering.
Self-medication without sufficient knowledge may lead to the irrational use of drugs causing serious negative health impacts and increased economic burden. Rampant irrational use of drugs without medical guidance may result in a greater probability of inappropriate, incorrect, or undue therapy, missed diagnosis, delays in appropriate treatment, pathogen resistance, and increased morbidity.
On the other hand, if practiced responsibly and appropriately, self‐medication can readily relieve acute medical problems, save the time spent waiting to see a doctor as well as the traveling time, may be economical, and can be life-saving in emergency medical situations. Some governments are increasingly encouraging self-care for minor illnesses, including self-medication. It is now a well-accepted fact that self‐care in the form of responsible self‐medication can be beneficial for patients, healthcare providers, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments. However, appropriate health information is of utmost importance for self‐medicating. Thus self-medication can be described as a double-edged sword for its users having both beneficial and harmful effects. Numerous factors are thought to contribute to self-medication, and this can vary in a region-specific manner with a few of them being lifestyle, easy drug access, socioeconomic factors, etc. The growing trend of self-medication can be attributed to various factors like the urge for self-care, sympathy toward sick family members, inaccessible health services and non-availability of drugs, and time and financial constraints. Ignorance, misbeliefs, extensive advertisement, and availability of drugs in shops other than drug stores also contribute to this increasing trend. With this background, the present cross-sectional community-based study was conducted to find out the prevalence, pattern, and reasons for self-medication.
Health education and interventions aimed at changing the perceptions of individuals regarding the accessibility, and affordability of healthcare facility is likely to influence the self-medication practice. Analgesics have harmful effects on the liver and kidneys, so people should be made aware through health education about the adverse effects of its excess use. People should be warned about antibiotic resistance and serious adverse drug reactions of medicines using mass media. As the pharmacist is the main source of information and provider, they should be made aware of the medicolegal aspects of providing drugs without a prescription. Drug control enforcement needs to be intensified and strict control of sales is highly required. As most youngsters follow the internet and other mass media advertisements, advertising and selling drugs without a prescription should be banned.
Tackling this “growing concern” will take more than warnings on medicine strips. Stricter enforcement of prescription-only sales, better public health infrastructure so that seeing a doctor isn’t a day-long ordeal, and sustained awareness campaigns about the dangers of unsupervised drug use are all part of the answer. Pharmacists, too, have a role to play as a first line of defence asking questions rather than simply dispensing what’s asked for. Self-care has its place. But when it quietly replaces medical care altogether, the cost to individual health and to the wider fight against drug resistance is one society can ill afford to keep paying.
“Any Error in this manuscript is silent testimony of the fact that it was a human effort”
The writer is Associate Professor & HoD zoology, Govt. Degree College Doda, UT of JK, India. E-mail: wahied_kb@yahoo.co.in
