Self-Medication in Patients Older than Sixty Years and with Neurologic Diseases

Abstract

Introduction: Self-medication is a growing phenomenon and, today, has been considered a public health concern.

Objective: To estimate the level of self-medication related to the diagnostic delay of patients with neurological diseases and the factors associated with this self-care tactic.

Methods: An observational and cross-sectional study was designed, in including 102 patients and one hundred relatives from Plaza de la Revolución Municipality, who received attention, during a one-year period (June 2018-June 2019), in the neurology consultation of the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and had a diagnosis of neurological diseases.

Results: Of the total number of patients, 45.1% manifested to medicate themselves; it was more frequent in women (63.1%), with a predominance in non-university patients (90%) and housewives (54.3%). The main symptom that motivated self-medication was headache (30.4%), while nonopioid analgesics made up the group with the highest consumption (23.9%). Latency regarding the diagnosis of neurological diseases in the self-medicated group was between ten and nineteen months higher than in the non–self-medicated group.

Conclusions: Self-medication is a very frequent practice, which caused the diagnostic and therapeutic delay of various neurological diseases of low incidence, ruining their adequate evolution.