Human beings have a deep-rooted proneness to use herbs, medications, homemade remedies, tonics, to treat themselves as a part of their health care [1]. Self-care is something that can be defined as a positive point in our life, and we really need to take care of ourselves, and by correctly applying proper precautions we can live a better and healthy life. We can avoid several diseases by caring for ourselves at the right time [2]. The WHO (World Health Organization) has also specified that adequate self-medication can help stop and treat conditions that do not require medical consultation and provides a reasonable substitute for treating ordinary illnesses [3]. There is a health policy adopted by the international pharmaceutical federation on self-medication, which tries to deliver high quality service to the people, and it would encourage the positive use of medicines [4]. There have been both the positive and negative use of medicines in both rural and urban populations but unfortunately the rate of misuse of medicines is higher [5]. Recent studies show that in 50% of cases people usually prefer to let their condition recover naturally, or they use some home-made remedies, in the remaining 25% of cases people prefer self-medication and, in the last 25% of cases people use prescribed medicines or visit a healthcare professional [6]. Everything has its pros and cons so is the case with self-medication, it actually has some benefits if implemented properly, Self-medication using non-prescribed drugs, herbal medicines, home-remedies can be secure if the consumer has sufficient knowledge about the drug and sickness [7].

Some benefits of self-medication are as follows:

• Self-medication can help reduce health expenses if implemented appropriately.
• Freedom in choosing own treatment, without consulting the doctors [8].
• For the population residing in the rural or remote areas where medical suggestions might be hard to find, enhancing the accessibility of health care might be useful [9].
• Self-medication can help save time, by reducing the need to visit a physician for minor symptoms that are self-treatable and waiting for hours in their clinic [10].
• In emergency conditions, self-medication is a preferable option as painkillers can easily be bought from pharmacies to treat minor pain.
• Treating minor illnesses according to parental advice.
• Less severe illness such as fever, cough, are easily treated through self-medication [11, 12].
• It reduces the load on the medical services and basic amenities where human capital is inadequate.
• Self-medication strengthens the individual’s ability to resist the existing chronic abnormalities by their own understanding and perception [13, 14].

Prolonged use of self-medication might have devastating effects on our health. There are more side effects of self-medication as compared to benefits. The practice of self-medication is widespread. Recent studies show that misuse of medicines was slightly higher due to a lot of reasons. Self-medication can be used for a good motive and sometimes maybe misapplied. On one hand Self-medication has some amazing benefits, but on the contrary, it can also lead towards dangerous consequences which are as follows:

• Inaccurate self-diagnosis
• Uncommon but dreadful adverse reactions [15]
• Threatening drug interlinkage, as inappropriate usage of medicines greatly increases the chances of drug reactions [16].
• The opposing occurrences of both over and underdosing of medication can cause severe conditions [17].
• Disrupt dosages that cause side effects leads to hormonal imbalances in the body [18].
• Inaccurate medication taken by own choice results in treatment failures thus making the mild illnesses more complicated [19].
• Health care costs increases in accordance with the illness, which requires prolonged recovery [20]
• Self-medicated patients are brought into the hospital when the mild state of illness has changed into a more complex and uncontrollable state.
• Most people take two drugs at a time that is totally insane, because they both react negatively on our body that can even lead to death [21].
• Using the same drugs on a daily basis helps in providing resistance to microbial agents that causes the sickness in our body [22].
• Wastage of resources.
• Severe disease gets concealed and the risk of drug addiction and abuse.
• Due to wrong self-diagnose individuals can damage their organs [23].
• Wrong self-medication causes many diseases such as allergies, renal diseases, and low immunity towards outside microbe and toxins [24].
• The people hailing from rural areas have no clue about the uses and misuses of medicines. Many drugs, present in the medical stores, are banned, but it does not stop the pharmacists from selling them to naive people [25].
• The risks associated with the addiction of self-medication are beyond one’s imagination. Such as,
• Make symptoms worse: Depending on self-medication can only worsen the existing symptoms of mental health issues [26].
• Trigger new mental health problems: it could trigger depression and anxiety if we overdose on alcohol and opioid [27].
• Interact with prescription medication: If someone is a drinker or is into drugs, then the overuse of these things could interact with other general medications, and would end up with unpleasant side effects [28].
• Delay or prevent you from seeking help: The long-term use of self-medication leaves us dependent on it [29]. But once we realize that you are increasing your health problems instead of reducing them, one can easily tackle those issues via seeking a good doctor [30]

What if we can stop self-medication? All we need to do is stop buying medicines without a doctor’s prescription. However, we have other ways as well such as:

• Do not ever purchase non- prescribed medicine [31].
• Create awareness on your social networking accounts, after all this is the least you could do [32].
• Government should regulate new laws regarding medicines. And the only way to buy medicines would be a prescription from a professional doctor [33].
• Once should be aware about the disadvantages of self-medication because sometimes it worsens one’s condition [34].
• Topics like self-medication should be added in the curriculum [35].
• Pharmacists should not sell medicines without prescription. And they should be educated both the laws and rules regarding the selling of un-prescribed medicines [36].
• Selling and buying of antibiotics without prescription should be considered as a crime [37].

Over The Counter Medicines

OTC are basically the non-prescribed medicines which differ from prescribed medicines in a sense that they are sold without doctors’ advice while prescribed medicines can only be sold on doctor’s prescription to consumers [38]. OTC medications play a huge role in self-medication. According to previous research OTC medications have their own positive and negative impacts on human body [39]. If people have no knowledge about their adequate use, then definitely it will end up with detrimental consequences [40]. As our regulatory system is not much effective, most of the pharmacies sell drugs without prescription. When this combines with the lack of awareness, the average person stays unenlightened to the noxious effect of the drugs [41]. OTC medicines often do more than mitigate pain and aches. They also help in averting diseases like tooth decay, migraine pain, sore throat, fever etc [42]. OTC medicines that are commonly used in self-medication includes antibiotics, antacids, analgesic, vitamins, anti-malarial drugs etc [43].

Forms of Self-Medication

People are liable to suffer from physical and emotional dependencies. Most of them go through periods of depression and through traumatic/sad phases of life which may lead to self-medication [44]. However, there are several forms of self-medication that people can fall into in order to overcome the stress and uncertainty of life, or the feeling of loss that overwhelms a person when a certain trauma happens [45]. Some of these forms of self-medication can be evidently harmful, like alcohol or drugs. Otherwise, some forms can be more subtle and secretive, that progresses over time [46].

Self-Medicating With Food

It is difficult to accurately spot this issue because food is a daily requirement and people are always surrounded by it. If a person got sick or is gaining a lot of weight due to excessive eating in a short span of time but still despite in all the conditions he binges on food, so we can say that this person is likely to be self-medicating with food [47]. Generally, some people lose their ability to stop eating when full if they are eating food as a form of escape rather than as a source of joy. People usually start hiding how much they are eating food from friends and family members, and it is another sign of self-medicating with food [48]. Deep inside they know that they are eating in an excessive manner ad in this way their food become a form of self-medication [49].

Self-Medicating With Caffeine and Cigarettes

Caffeine and cigarettes are old companions. Most of the time people take them together, taking them together gives the person a different kind of energy that makes them active and functional [50]. Caffein can be highly addictive. If a person feels confused, agitated without a certain amount of caffeine then caffeine amount should be under examination [51]. Taking caffeine in a considerate amount is not a threat but smoking one bar of cigarette is threat to a human body. Smoking daily can be very dangerous and it is a form of self-medication that people do when they feel depressed or start having anxiety [52]. Smoking causes lung cancer and can damage the lungs badly as it has carcinogen (a cancer-causing agent). The younger you start smoking the harder it will get for you to quit it [53].

Self-Medicating With Alcohol

Alcohol might relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety temporarily if consumed in low doses, however if consumed in high quantity on daily basis will end up in addiction [54].

Self-medication is very common practice among general population and among both medical and non-medical students [55]. Basically, medical, and non-medical students both are equally prone to self-medication. Recent studies show that prevalence rate of self-medication is very high among both medical and non-medical students not only in Pakistan but throughout the globe [56]. Talking about non-medical students, most of the time people think that non-medical students are not prone to self-medication, they do not know the pros and cons so they do not practice it at all but that is totally wrong [57]. Now as this generation of students are technology inspired, they have access to every kind of information because of the internet. Everything has changed because of now-a-days technology, people who are non-medical students they also take help from internet for self-prescription of drugs [58]. If the person has adequate knowledge about its symptoms then self-medication would cause no harm but without proper knowledge it could end up worsening their situation [59]. Recent research shows that the prevalence rate of self-medication among non-medical students is around 59% and the medical conditions for which self-medication was commonly practiced were headache and fever [60]. Another research found that prevalence rate of self-medication among non-medical students is around 71%. The commonly used drugs were pain killers, anti-allergic, and sleep inducers [61]. On the other hand, medical students, have more knowledge on human health due to their exposure to knowledge about different diseases and drugs therefore practice self-medication at a high rate [62]. Medical students are the future healthcare practitioners, they need to know more about the diseases and the drugs as compared to non-medical students, because they study about the composition of the drugs, effect of drugs, types of drugs so they can further prescribe drugs in near future as well and their way of prescribing drugs in future will affect the whole healthcare system either negative or positively [63].

Self-medication is very common among the growing population because of their knowledge about different disease symptoms or drugs which they have used previously. Aid from internet, friends, and family members may lead to self-medication and people would not prefer to consult a physician.

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