PATTERN OF DRUG USE AMONG THE PHYSICIANS AND THE PUBLIC.

Background: The medications are chemical substances intended for limited goals. Some patients take medications without prescriptions and consultation of doctors. Some of them used to use these drugs frequently with long time, and some compare their conditions with others who have similar complaining or symptoms. As a result of this, most of the patients have unpredictable and undesirable effects of these drugs. These effects vary in their seriousness from minor to dangerous or even life-threatening. Because of the dangers of this phenomenon on the healthy field and community, we want in this research briefly to highlight on the proportion of patients who use drugs without prescriptions, the main causes, and the unwanted effects that some patients have. We hope that we use the information obtained from this research to design a proper education program for the people to orient them about the dangers of this phenomenon on the health. Objectives: To describe the pattern of drug prescription among Primary Health Care Physicians, the factors associated with public use of drugs without prescription and the awareness of the people regarding hazard of using non-prescription drugs. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional descriptive study in Riyadh and Qassim, KSA to describe the factors associated with public use of drugs without prescription and describe the awareness of the people regarding hazard of using non-prescription drugs including male, female, Saudi, and non-Saudi persons of any age who were eligible to participate. The sample included 320 patients who had used drugs without prescription. We collected information on demographic variables, personal and socioeconomic data, and types of drugs, and diseases, signs and symptoms that usually motivate people to take non prescription. Results: The total number of patients was 320 with 96.87% male (n=310) and 3.17% female (n=10). The mean age was 27 years. The distribution of patients was 40% from Al Qassim (128/320) and 192 from Riyadh (192/320). The most cause that guides the patients to take drugs without prescription is headache. 45.6 % of the patients used drug without prescriptions based upon their previous experience. The reasons for not going to the hospitals: 37% of them said because of the same drugs that they used before. 54 % of the patients believe that if he repeats the same disease, he will not use the same drug which they used without a prescription. Conclusions: The study concludes that a large number of people in the society use some types of medicines without consulting the doctor based upon their previous experience in the use of these drugs and the absence of any side effects to it. Most of these commonly used drugs are analgesics and antibiotics which lead to resistance by these drugs. Public awareness should be increased about the risks of using drugs without a prescription as well as the seriousness of some diseases perceived by the society as mild diseases.