Paracetamol- A Self Medicated Popular Drug Abuse by Young Student Community
T. Chakraborty¹, M. Baidya¹*, A. Chakraborty¹ and M. Baidya²

¹Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy, Chikkabellandur, Carmelram Post, Bangalore- 35 India.

²Kaliayaganj College, Kaliayaganj, Uttar Dinajpur India.

Abstract: Objective A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to know about the prevalence, attitude and knowledge of Paracetamol a self-medicated drug that effectively infected the young student population of age between 14-18 years. Methods The study was conducted on October - November 2008 on questionnaire-based survey in Kharagpur, West Bengal where the people form all over India resides. Total number of volunteers (male and female) was three hundred and ninety four (394) (age between 14 to 18 years). Results The prevalence of self-medication in young student was quite high and that was 66.24%. Among the self-medicated student 47.64% utilize Paracetamol as their first choice of medicine. 72.58% of the same population agreed that the practice of self-medication is dangerous. The most common reasons for self-medication were parental advice (16.61%) although they were highly educated, lack of time (25.78%), Cheap (6.5%), lack of consciousness about the disease (37.82%), reuse of old prescription (2.57%), quick relief (3.43%), and easy availability (2.0%). Conclusion From the above data we can conclude that despite majority being aware of harmful effects of self-medication its prevalence is high in the educated youth. It was observed that almost half of the young population took Paracetamol as the first choice of medication. Although it is considered to be a safe OTC product but on prolong practice it shows hepatotoxicity and other complication, which the youth is unaware off. Hence, there is a need to educate the youth to ensure safe practices. Strict policies need to be implemented on the advertising and selling of OTC medications to prevent this problem from escalating.

Keywords: Self-medication; Paracetamol; Educated youth; OTC

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