ABSTRACT
Background: The implications of self-medication practices are increasingly recognized around the world as self-medication is a common practice worldwide and irrational use of drugs is a cause of concern more so among medical students as they are future medical practitioners. The objective was to determine the prevalence, attitude, and knowledge of self-medication among second professional medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students in February-March 2015. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaire and expressed as percentage frequency. Results: Of the 138 students, only 122 filled and returned the questionnaire. The majority of the students self-medicated because of the illness being too trivial for consultation (63.1%) or had previous experience of same illness (63.1%), headache (77.8%), flu/cold and sore throat (58.1%), closely followed by fever (52.4%) were the main symptoms leading to self-medication. Commonly used medicines were analgesics (74.6%), headache relievers (71.3%), antibiotics (64%), and antipyretics (50.8%). A large proportion (42.6%) and 35% used every few months or 2-3 times per year, respectively. Conclusion: Our study showed that self-medication is widely practiced among students, easy availability of medicine probably being the cause. Educating the students regarding advantages and disadvantages of self-medication is necessary to create awareness.
ABSTRACT
To compare the effectiveness of intravenous lignocaine and tramadol in reducing the incidence and severity of pain on propofol injection in a prospective randomized open labeled placebo controlled parallel study. A total of 120 patients admitted for different elective general surgical procedures were randomized and divided in four groups. Group I received intravenous (i.v.) propofol 2mg/kg only, while group II, III and IV received 1% lignocaine 0.5mg/kg, tramadol 1mg/kg ,normal saline 2ml (n=30 in each group) respectively with venous occlusion for 1 minute, followed by administration of propofol 2mg/kg into a dorsal hand vein. Pain was assessed on a four point scale (0=none, 1=mild, 2=moderate, 3=severe) during propofol injection. Both incidence and severity of pain was calculated in all the four groups. The incidence of pain in group I, II, III and IV was 100.0%, 30.0%, 26.7%, and 96.7% respectively with statistical significant reduction in group 11 and group 111 ( P 0.000). Mean pain score showed statistically significant difference between group I(1.9+0.4) and group II (0.3+0.5), group I (1.9+0.4) and group III (0.3+0.4), group II (0.3+0.5), and group IV(1.9+0.7), group III (0.3+0.4) and group IV(1.9+0.7) with P= 0.000. There was also significant difference in severity of pain between group I and II, group I and III, group II and IV, group III and group IV (P 0.000). Lignocaine and tramadol are equally effective in reducing both incidence and severity of pain due to propofol injection. Tramadol being as effective as lignocaine in prevention of propofol induced pain, may replace lignocaine, thereby minimizing risk to the population, as lignocaine is well known to have cardiorespiratory depressant property.