Self-medication by women attending a genitourinary medicine clinic.
A questionnaire was completed by 103 symptomatic women attending a busy, walk-in genitourinary medicine clinic in London before seeing a doctor. This questionnaire asked about the patients' own diagnosis of symptoms, previous remedies and their source. The answers were compared to their past history and current diagnosis. Of symptomatic women 56% had used a self-administered remedy prior to attending the clinic. This was significantly associated with a history of a previous episode of genital infection which had produced similar symptoms to the current problem. Forty-three percent of those who used self-medication reported some improvement in symptoms and more than 50% tolerated longer than 10 days of symptoms before attending the clinic.
Russell
J M
JM
John Hunter Clinic, St Stephens Hospital, London, UK.
Barton
S E
SE
Lawrence
A G
AG
D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires