Determinants of Self Medication Practices in Community of Urban Areas of Bikaner, Rajasthan

Self Medication is dened as "Use of pharmaceutical or medicinal products by the consumer to treat selfrecognized disorders or symptoms, the intermittent or continued use of a medication previously prescribed by a physician for chronic or recurring disease or symptom or the use of medication recommended by lay sources or health workers not entitled to prescribe medicine."

The primary objective of our study was to determine the pattern of self medication practice in the communities of urban areas of Bikaner. This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was carried out from February 2013 to July 2013 among '365' participants and it was found that self medication practice was quite prevalent (82.1%) among them. Headache, fever and cough/cold were the most common illnesses for which analgesics/antipyretics and cold remedies were found to be consumed by the subjects. The other frequently self taken medicines belonged to antispasmodic, antiallergic and antacid group. This shows that for minor illnesses people show reluctance to consult the physician and take medicines by themselves for quick relief. Chemists were found to be giving the information about medicines most commonly, however, participants do get the information about medicines from previous experiences and from relatives also. It was further observed that patients have been obtaining medicines without prescription mostly from either pharmacies or grocery shops.