English

Abstract

Self-medication is quite common practice in general and particularly among medical students. Self-medication can be defined as obtaining and consuming medication without the advice of a clinician for treatment of an ailment. There can be many reasons for increased likelihood of self - medication among the medical students like easy access and senior medical student's advice, easy access to physician's samples, because of the white coat, from pharmacist/chemist shops. 1 However self-medication can be quite harmful and can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It could lead to various complications and side effects like-habituation and addiction, poisoning, hyper vitaminosis, antibiotic resistance and incorrect and delayed diagnosis, over diagnosis or under diagnosis, at times really serious and fatal consequences can occur. It results in wastage of resources, increase resistance of pathogens and can causes serious hazards like adverse drug reaction, prolonged suffering and drug dependence. This study was performed to assess and evaluate the incidence and awareness of self-medications among the medical students of first professional MBBS in medical college Jammu. A study on one hundred medical students of Jammu medical college was conducted to assess and evaluates the pattern of self-medication among these students. This study was done to know the frequencies and reasons and the pattern of self-medication among young medical students of Jammu region. A detail questionnaire was prepared and each student was asked to fill up the Performa and then the data was analyzed. It was found that self-medication is very common (90 %) and is comparable to studies from other parts of the world. For most of them the reason for self-medication was common cold. The result emphasizes the amount of problem in the society about self-medication and lack of awareness about side effects. Hence more strict regulations are needed to avoid more healthcare problems and have a responsible pattern of self-medication. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and pattern of self-medication among medical students of Jammu. To assess and evaluate the reasons, factors and problems related to self-