Background: Fungal infections have become increasingly prevalent. Self-medication is a common health care practice to treat fungal diseases or for symptomatic relief. Because of self-medication drug-sensitive fungal pathogens have gradually developed resistance. Aims and objectives of the study was to define the pattern of antifungal drug use and self-medication pattern for common fungal infections of skin in dermatology outpatient.Methods: The present study was an Observational, descriptive, cross sectional study conducted at Dermatology OPD of MGM Medical College, Kamothe. All adult patients with fungal infections of the skin attending the Dermatology OPD were enrolled. A study performa was specifically designed to record information related to demographic, disease profile and medications prescribed.Results: A total of 200 patient’s prescriptions were analysed. Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was found to be 20.26%, Percentage of drugs prescribed from National Essential Drug List 2015 was found to be 79.74%. There were no encounters with antibiotic and parenteral preparations. Only 5.16% of the drugs prescribed were fixed dose combination (FDC) as compared to 94.93% as Monotherapy. Most frequently prescribed anti-fungal agents were the azoles; amongst which Imidazoles (53.33%) were the commonest. Most commonly prescribed individual antifungal was oral Terbinafine (64.81%) and topical was Eberconazole (58.49%). The dosage form most frequently encountered was Cream (92.45%). The prevalence of self-medication for dermatological conditions among patients was 62.26%. Most of the drugs for self-medication were topical (creams) FDC of antifungal and steroids. Around 78% of the self-medication information was obtained from the chemists.Conclusions: The study documented physician preference for Monotherapy than FDC. Prescribers need to be made aware for prescribing generic and essential drugs, thus ensuring rational utilization. They also need to counsel and discourage patients from self-medication.

Background: A well-made research is a cumbersome process. The submission of a research article for publication is the final stage of long planning, execution, analysis, and final preparation of the research document. Concerns have been raised about the gradual decline of ethical principles that guide scientific research as well as writing and publication. Postgraduate residents (PG) are in their interim phase of education, research and practice. MCI guidelines has made mandatory for PG's to pursue research as a part of academic requirement. There exists paucity in literature on the ethical aspects of publication among PG residents. To assess the level of understanding of PG residents with respect to the ethical norms of paper publication. Methodology: A cross-sectional, observational questionnaire survey was conducted among PG's pursuing education at a tertiary care teaching hospital, Navi-Mumbai. A total of 60 PG's were included. The questionnaire included aspects of ethics, authorship, conflict of interest, plagiarism, simultaneous submission and salami slicing. Result: Majority of the PG residents were involved in research and published research paper. Majority (83.33%) followed ICMR guidelines for publication. The correct criteria for authorship were known to only 5%. A large fraction knew what conflict of interest (68.3%) and plagiarism (86.6) meant. The terms simultaneous publication (35%), duplicate publication (31.6%) and salami slicing (26.6%) were poorly known. Conclusion: The overall ethical understanding of PG residents with respect to paper publication was low. Further, structured CME/workshop on ethics and paper publications need to be planned to reduce the knowledge gap.