Abstract
Self medication practices among the medical and paramedical professionals have been reported in many countries, however, very limited research was done exclusively on antibiotic in North India. This study was designed to assess the prevalence and pattern of antibiotic usage for self diagnosed diseases among the medical and pharmacy students. This was a questionnaire based cross sectional study conducted among medical and pharmacy students in North India. A total 326 students participated in the study and data of 316 students were eligible for analysis. 57.63% medical and 66.9% pharmacy students reported to use antibiotics in last one year. Fever was the predominant ailments for which medical (48.41%) and pharmacy (46.88%) students' self medicated. Most of the medical (74.6%) and pharmacy (61.9%) students had preferred amoxicillin for their ailments. The majority of medical students, 65.87% have self medicated because of their pharmacological knowledge in contrast to 62.1% pharmacy students. Adverse drug reaction experienced by 29.36% and 11.7% medical and pharmacy students respectively. Statistically no significant difference was observed in antibiotic usage between medical and pharmacy students (p = 0.08). To curb the growing trend of this unethical practices students of health care professional needs to be educated.
Highlights
Self medication is defined as selection and selfadministration of medicine either for diagnosis, treatment or acquisition and intake of drugs for self diagnosed disorders without prescription of a physician (Badiger et al, 2012)
Antibiotics are considered as wondered drug (NPCAR, 2011) and it comes under Schedule H of the drug and cosmetics act of India, which is of use when given by a registered medical practitioner
Total numbers of medical and pharmacy students indulging in self medication were 126 and 111 respectively
Summary
Self medication is defined as selection and selfadministration of medicine either for diagnosis, treatment or acquisition and intake of drugs for self diagnosed disorders without prescription of a physician (Badiger et al, 2012). India reported that this practice is very common among medical professionals and rate of antibiotics use among them are very high (Badiger et al, 2012; Kumar et al, 2013). Antibiotics are considered as wondered drug (NPCAR, 2011) and it comes under Schedule H of the drug and cosmetics act of India, which is of use when given by a registered medical practitioner. It leads to treatment failure, serious adverse drug reactions, enhanced cost, increased period of hospitalization and morbidity (Donkor et al, 2012)
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