A survey on the extent of medication storage and wastage in urban Iranian households

Farmácias domiciliares e sua relação com a automedicação em crianças e adolescentes

“…Notwithstanding the different methodologies employed, the results of this study exhibit similarities with those of studies carried out in other countries 4,5,8,9,11 and in the South of of regular intervention programs to prevent accidents at home and of legislation to make use of medical packaging with safety caps obligatory, 17 which, unfortunately, does not yet exist in Brazil. 18 Although classically the great majority of toxic exposures affecting children up to the age of 6 years are unintentional and of low toxicity, 18,19 swallowing just two pills of a calcium channel blocker such as nifedipine or amlodipine, for example, can cause serious morbidity and, occasionally, death at this age, indicating the risk generated by lack of concern for the safe storage of these medications.…”

“…20 In general the quantities of pharmaceutical preparations stored followed the same ranking as in a previous study in which we compared use of medications due to self-medication or recent medical prescription, 13 suggesting that keeping medicines at home could be one extra factor inducing self-medication, 11 particularly of analgesics/antipyretics and antibiotics for systemic use. 4,5,[8][9][10] Furthermore, the quantity of acetylsalicylic acid stored by the self-medication group was 10 times greater than the quantity stored by the medical prescription group, indicating that this medicine is probably not bought on the basis of medical advice.…”

“…1 Faced with this situation, both developed countries and those in development have invested in programs with the objective of reducing irrational drugs use and waste, employing, with the support of the WHO, regulatory measures aimed tentional toxic exposure (particularly of small children) and intentional intoxication. 4,5,[8][9][10][11] Although "responsible self-medication" (taking medicines that do not require a medical prescription to treat symptoms) may, possibly, reduce "pressure" on health systems where there are access difficulties, the procedure is contestable and is not risk free. 8,12 Taking into consideration the above, in combination with the fact that studies investigating the characteristics of home medicine chests are rare both internationally 4,5,8,9,11 and in Brazil, 10 the objective of this study was to investigate the principal characteristics of the home medicine chests of the families of individuals selected for a population-based epidemiological study into self-medication in children and adolescents, following up on a previously published paper 13 which analyzed other variables which could have had an influence on self-medication.…”

An analysis of expired medications in Serbian households

“…In addition, more than 20% of the prescribed medications in British homes were not being taken, while 14% of prescribed medications were partly used. In an Iranian and the British study, approximately 10% of patients who filled their prescriptions have never taken the prescribed medications (12). Notwithstanding the reasons for leftovers of prescription medications, these medications can definitely lead to unintentional pharmaceutical poisonings of children, facilitate abusive use, and promote emerging social problems, such as teenage "pharming", a recreational use and abuse of prescription medications among teenagers (18).…”

“…The environmental consequences and human health risk that this represents is intensely debated, and the real risk may not be known for years (8)(9)(10)(11). Notwithstanding the health and environmental issues, medication wastage has a huge impact in monetary terms and can result in a substantial economic loss (12)(13)(14).…”