Non-Prescription Medications Safety And Awareness

Nonprescription medication includes OTC drugs and self-medication drugs. It refers to medicines that can be bought without a prescription from a doctor or other health professionals and are available in pharmacies. Worldwide consumption of non-prescription medication is increasing. The FDA has approved many classes of drugs such as analgesics, cough suppressants, antipyretics etc under non prescription drugs. This study aims to assess the safety and awareness of OTC drugs consumption among the public. An online cross-sectional study was conducted among various individuals to estimate the knowledge, safety, and awareness of non-prescription medications. It was found that more than 75% of individuals bought non-prescribed medicines. The decision to use these drugs was based on the pharmacist's recommendations (57.2%) or based on personal decisions influenced by their basic knowledge on common health problems and their solutions. The most non-prescription drugs purchased were antipyretics (85.2%), antihistamine (73.6%) and antidiarrheal products. Around 58% claimed to read the labels or ask for more information about the drug from the pharmacist. This study discovered a great misconception among consumers toward nonprescription medicines. Therefore, it is suggested that the public be educated through online articles or by conducting webinars about the type of illness to be self-diagnosed, the possible dangers of OTC drugs and prevention of misuse which could avoid unwanted effects that could also have the potential to be fatal.