An Elucidation of the Major Symptoms Treated by Self-medication of Pain Relieving and H1 Antihistaminic Drugs in Bangladesh

As we move towards a culture of increased self-management of minor illness, the demonstrated need for improved pharmacovigilance of non-prescribed medicines must be addressed. Hence, the objectives of this paper are to present data on the self-reported use of prescribed and over-the-counter pain relieving agents and H1-antihistaminic drugs among general people and to examine factors associated with the use of prescribed drugs, over-the-counter painkillers and cough, cold and allergy treatments. Aspirin was significantly more self medicated for headache and Diclofenac for pain than other symptoms. Paracetamol, Pizotifen, Tramadol, Chlorphenamine and Promethazine were significantly more used in fever, migraine, fever, cold and cough respectively rather than other symptoms. Loratadine, Desloratadine and Cetirizine were significantly more used in allergy rather than other symptoms. The medicines having higher popularity i.e. acquaintance rate showed higher self-medication rate. The statistics presented here can be a useful probe for law enforcers and public health campaigns.