Investigating factors of self-care orientation and self-medication use in a Greek rural area.

INTRODUCTION: Self-care oriented people are more likely to undertake self-care activities in order to treat lay self-diagnosed symptoms and restore their own health without professional assistance. One of these activities is self-medication, which refers to the use of medications without medical consultation. The absence of permanent doctors in rural Greece encourages self-medication practices. The main objectives of this article were to detect factors that determine self-care orientation and to predict the use of prescription medications without a doctor's prescription as well as to study the impact of self-care orientation in using medical care in a Greek rural area. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was designed and 150 face-to-face interviews were randomly conducted during January and February 2011, by using a research instrument with 46 questions. These included information about self-rated health, existence of chronic disease, self-medication behavior, use of prescription and non-prescription drugs and sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. Logistic regression as well as Fisher's exact test were used to analyze the results. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents (80%) were found to be self-care oriented and 54.7% had used prescription medications without a doctor's prescription. The orientation to self-care seems to be determined by gender (p < 0.05), the existence of chronic disease (p < 0.05) and educational level (p < 0.05). More specifically, factors found to predict self-care orientation by using a medication and consequently self-medication were female gender (odds ratio (OR): 3.44, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.37-8.66), the absence of chronic disease (OR: 0.30, 95% CI: 0.098-0.92) and higher educational level (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.05-2.58). However, self-care orientation was not found to affect the use of medical services (p(Fisher's exact test)>0.05). The likelihood of using prescription medications without a doctor's prescription is defined by self-care orientation (p < 0.001) and self-rated health status (p < 0.05). So, individuals who practice self-medication with prescription drugs are self-care oriented (OR: 6.16, 95% CI: 2.38-15.89) and they probably have lower self-rated health status (OR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.42-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: The high percentages of self-care orientation and self-medication with prescription drugs highlight the need to educate individuals in rural areas about the safe and rightful use of medicines. Knowing what factors determine such self-medication will help in focusing and operationalizing future interventions to protect the health of the public.

Discovery of novel anxiolytic agents--the trials and tribulations of pre-clinical models of anxiety.

Anxiety disorders are the most common class of mental disorders present in the general population with an estimated lifetime prevalence of any anxiety disorder being approximately 15%, while the 12-month prevalence is more than 10%. They are classified into simple phobias, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and panic attacks. Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in females than males and respond to pharmacological and non-pharmacological (behavioral) treatments. Anxiety disorders are complex with genetic and environmental factors interacting to produce the final psychopathology. There are many tests used to detect behaviors that indicate heightened anxiety in rodents however there are few pathological models of anxiety in rodents. Most compound testing is performed on naive, non-pathologically anxious, male animals which is a potential limitation to current strategies since these animals do not reflect the anxious patient. This article briefly describes some of the most common anxiety tests used in rodent research and concludes with a short perspective on areas the field could concentrate on to improve the understanding and successful translation of novel targets into new therapies in the clinic.