A survey of antibiotic outpatient prescribing and antibiotic self-medication

Abstract

In order to assess patterns of antibiotic prescribing and self-medication, a survey was carried out of patients from Government and private hospitals (500 each) and of 1000 apparently healthy adults in Benin City, Nigeria. Ampicillin and tetracycline were the antibiotics commonly used for self-medication; the commonest reasons given for the self-medication were the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, cough, stomach upsets and diarrhoea. Ampicillin was the commonest prescribed antibiotic; the commonest indications for prescription were soft-tissue, sexually transmitted, upper respiratory and gastro-intestinal infections. According to an assessment by four clinicians from a panel of eight in Government and private practice, 52% of the total prescriptions were judged to be appropriate whereas 30% were judged to be inappropriate by a majority of the physicians. The implications of this study for the control of bacterial resistance to antibiotics are discussed.

Self-medication with Antimicrobial Drugs in Europe

“…In contrast to studies in developing countries, this study identified few cases of self-medication for sexually transmitted diseases ( 34 , 35 ). Only 2 respondents in Lithuania reported self-medication for "gynecological infection" that might have been a sexually transmitted infection.…”

Prescribing practices in two health care facilities in Warri, Southern Nigeria: A comparative study

“…However, it was not possible, from the approach we adopted, to establish whether the use of antibiotics in this study was inappropriate, as further studies involving laboratory and/or clinical data would be needed. However, antibiotics usage in the health facilities may have been inappropriate as observed in previous studies 34,35 .…”

A Prospective Study on the Antimicrobial Usage in the Medicine Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

“…However, an over and/or an inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents has the potential to lead to the development and the spread of resistant strains of pathogens [8]. With this state of affairs of the antimicrobials, we planned to study the antimicrobial agents which were prescribed and administered to the patients who were admitted in the Medicine Department of Teerthanker Mahaveer Medical College Out of the 494 drugs which were prescribed to the patients, 291 were antibiotics.…”