title: Prevalence of self-medication for skin diseases: a systematic review.
abstract: Self-medication is the selection and use of drugs without medical prescription, to treat diseases or for symptomatic relief. This article is a systematic review on self-medication in skin diseases. A search was conducted on Virtual Health Library and PubMed databases using predetermined descriptors. Two researchers performed the article selection process independently, with the degree of inter-observer agreement measured by the kappa index. The prevalence of self-medication ranged from 6.0 to 45.0%. Topical corticosteroids were the most commonly used therapeutic strategies for self-medication, as found in the reviewed articles. This study revealed that published data on self-medication in dermatology are scarce, although the findings showed that it was a common practice.
authors: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarão, SC, Brazil.
authors: Mariane
authors: M
authors: Corrêa-Fissmer
authors: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarão, SC, Brazil.
authors: Mariana Gaspar
authors: MG
authors: Mendonça
authors: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarão, SC, Brazil.
authors: Anesio Henrique
authors: AH
authors: Martins
authors: Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Tubarão, SC, Brazil.
authors: Dayani
authors: D
authors: Galato
mesh_terms: D000287:Administration, Topical; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones