Abstract

According to WHO's definition, self medication is “The selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat self recognized illnesses or symptoms”. Self-medication includes the use of nonprescription drugs and a range of different alternative medicines such as herbal remedies, food supplements, and traditional products. In most illness episodes, self-medication is the first option which makes self-medication a common practice worldwide. People of all socio-demographic categories practice self-medication. The most frequently self-diagnosed illnesses or symptoms of illnesses were: GI illnesses and headache/fever. Of these more than 30% were less than 24 hours duration and nearly 80% less than seven days duration of illness. The reasons given by respondents for self-diagnosis and self-medication were non-seriousness of the illnesses, for emergency use and prior experience about the illness. Whatever the duration of illnesses and reasons for self-diagnosis, nearly 60% requested drugs by mentioning the names of the drugs and more than one-fifth by telling the symptoms of their illnesses. Requests for antimicrobial drugs were very high for all reported illnesses and very low for ORS.© 2011 IGJPS. All rights reserved.

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