A Descriptive Study on Practice of Self Medication in Urban Field Practice Area of Perambalur Municipality, Tamil Nadu, India

Allopathic medicines in India are available through pharmacies and a doctor prescription is essential for procuring any allopathic drug. There are few medicines that are available over the counter (OTC) without doctors prescription. However in India, medicines are available without doctors prescription.

1. To study the profile and practice of self medication among the urban residents of Perambalur district in India.

2. To understand the various factors influencing self medication among the study participants.

Its a questionnaire based cross sectional study conducted in the urban field practice area of a medical college involving 150 participants. The study subjects were interviewed after they purchased medications from pharmacy. The study was intended to study the profile of practice of self medication rather than trying to estimate the prevalence. The study was conducted for a period of 6 months from Jan 2018 to August 2018.The study data was analysed using microsoft office excel.

Fever was the most common condition (72%) closely followed by headache (67%) for which pharmacy was approached for self medicaton followed by Respiratory infections (55%), general body pain (40%), diarrhoeal problem (8%) and lack of sleep (8%).

The practice of self medication was found to be deeply inculcated in the minds of the participants and the participants did not feel that prescription by pharmacist without consultation of a doctor is going to be dangerous for their long term health. The knowledge regarding the medications and its side effects was negligible among the study participants. There is an urgent need from the health system planners to address this issue in a comprehensive manner before this burden goes out of control.