Pharmacophilia: Prevalence and trends in our community

Abstract

Pharmacophilia is affection for taking medications with or without need, basically taking drugs like hallucinogens, anti-depressants, analgesics, anti-allergics, cough preparation and alcohols. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the factors that influence attitude of our community to take medicines frequently and unnecessarily. Study was conducted on 104 participants and they were classed as Pharmacophilia according to the attitude and compared with regarding to socio-demographic variables, clinical characteristics, gender, age-group, and education. Finally results were evaluated statistically and compared with retrospective data. Appraisal of the study shows that with respect to gender, males tended to be less Pharmacophilia (59.4%) than females (75%). As far as age was concerned 45.71% of adults, 23.07% teenagers and 75% geriatrics claimed to be Pharmacophilia. As for the education level 18.75% graduates,   44.44% intermediate-pass and 66.67% matriculation-pass were Pharmacophilia. As the level of education declined, the number of people answering positively to Pharmacophilia was seen to increase. Most of the individuals admitted to taking medicines for the purpose of relaxing themselves. Additionally, anti-hypertensive drugs were used by 19.01%, analgesics were used by 68.57% and anti-depressants by78.8%. 54.40% took medicines on daily basis, 16.21% on weekly basis, 1.34% on monthly basis and 27.03% took more than one times daily. 51.42% claimed that being Pharmacophilia brought a negative change in their life. Trend showed that mostly drug used by Pharmacophilia individuals belongs to anti-depressants for relaxation and it is recommended to conduct awareness programs for the control of drug misuse.