Self-Medication Practice among Students of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abdullah Al Maruf (Senior Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy, East West University) completed Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Pharmacy from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mr. Maruf is currently doing his Ph.D. on Toxicology in University of Toronto, Canada under prestigious Connaught Scholarship.

The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, behavior and perception of self-medication practice among the students of Pharmaceutical sciences from different private and public Universities of Bangladesh. The study showed that each and every respondent (n=474) (100%) had knowledge about self-medication. The most common indications for self medication were diarrhea (95.15%), fever (94.30%), headache (76.16%), cough (70.04%), gastric pain (65.82%), allergy (52.32%), vomiting (45.78%), vitamin deficiency (45.57%), stomachache (40.51%), constipation (37.13%), insomnia (33.97%), and skin diseases (29.11%). The major reasons for self medication were non-serious illness (87.55%), emergency use (79.96%), quick relief (85.86%), previous experience (83.97%), and unavailability of doctors (89.87%), advice from the family members / friends (51.90%), and cost-effectiveness (41.35%). The result showed that self medication was done mainly by analgesics (65.12%), the drugs acting on GIT (62.14%), cough suppressants (38.15%), antibiotics (22.86%), antihistamines (25.67%), and vitamins (25.81%).