Self-medication widely prevalent among medicos

Hyderabad: A survey published has revealed that 82.3 per cent of medical students in Telangana tend to self medicate, particularly in cases of upper respiratory tract infections, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of self-medication among medical students and the reasons why they continue to self-prescribe even though they have access to senior doctors whom they can contact.

Dr Srinivas Rao, senior general physician, said that “self-medication is not advised but we have seen this prevalent even among undergraduates who are used to taking drugs on their own. The misuse of drugs by experimenting on oneself begins from this habit.”

Of the 1,000 students surveyed, 82 per cent admitted to self-medication. Easy access to drugs is one reason for this habit. The drugs were either acquired from medical stores in hospitals or over-the-counter from medical stores outside.

Self-medication was common in cases of fever (70 per cent), headache (68 per cent), upper respiratory tract infections (64 per cent) and for abdominal pain, diarrhoea and body ache (48 per cent). Twenty-five per cent of those surveyed used herbal and ayurvedic medicines.