Incidence of self-medication and indiscriminate use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs among young university students

Objectives: Evaluate the prevalence of self-medication and possible adverse reactions caused by the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs by students of the School of Health Sciences of the Amazonas State University, Brazil. Methods: This is a study with a quantitative approach, consisted of questions addressing gender, age, university course, adverse effects and questions about self-medication. Results: Of the 60 academics who answered the questionnaire, the majority are female (33/55%) were aged between 18 and 22 years (31/52%). The students were mostly from the dentistry course (26/43%). As for the practice of self-medication, 47 (78%) report practicing. The anti-inflammatory drug that was most associated with self-medication is ibuprofen, which was used by 23 students (38.6%). Regarding knowledge about the risks of self-medication, 37 (61,6%) report having knowledge, while 29 (48.3%) describe stomach pain as a consequential adverse reaction to the indiscriminate use of drugs, and 31 (51.6%) use these drugs under their own guidance. Conclusions: This study shows that the practice of self-medication was high among the undergraduates, which requires the subject to be tackled with the undergraduates and the risk factors and the need for greater guidance by the health professional on the use of these drugs should be explained.