Self‑medication with over‑the‑counter (OTC) remedies is a common practice in both developed and developing countries. Self-medication can be defined as the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, or the intermittent or continued use of a prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with self-medication practice among people in Arar city, Saudi Arabia. This community-based, cross-sectional survey carried out in   Arar city, the capital of Northern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to explore  self-medication behavior among the general population. Five community pharmacies were selected using cluster random sampling in order to   represent the 5 geographical areas of Arar city (north, east, south, west and centre). In each community pharmacy, a sample of adult population (18–65 years) was selected using systematic random sampling. A total of 243 respondents attending 5 randomly selected pharmacies in Arar- KSA were interviewed in private over 2 months (November and December, 2015). The results indicated that 53.9% of the respondents had practiced self-medication practice most of them 72(55.0%) purchased non-prescribed drugs more than 6 times within the previous 6 months. The source of information for self-medications was the pharmacist 53 (40.5%), the physician 21(16.0%) and friends 17(13.0%). Irresponsible self-medication is common in Saudi Arabia. Future studies should focus on improving the consumers’ awareness of self-medication and the proper use of medications.

 

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