PEDIATRIC SELF-MEDICATION: CONSEQUENCES FOR HEALTH AS A RESULT OF THIS PRACTICE

Abstract

Self-medication is defined as the use of medication on its own to treat pathologies. The lack of access to health services and the placement of advertisements for over-the-counter medicines influence the search for alternative forms of treat- ment, and one of them is the use of medicines without guidance. The objective of the study was to analyze publications on pediatric self-medication in Brazil, in order to investigate which are the motivational factors, as well as describe their risks, consequences and identify which drugs are most used. For this work, an integrative literature review of a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory nature was carried out. Data were collected from the Virtual Health Library (VHL), using the databases of the Online Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLINE) and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS) data-bases. ), Nursing Databases (BDENF), Public Medline (PubMed), CAPES Periodicals, in addition to the Online Scientific Electronic Library (SciELO). As the most relevant finding, this research pointed to the prevalence of the practice of self-medication by those responsible for the child and the main motivation for this practice was the difficulty in obtaining care. As for the form of use, the study pointed out that this is usually done through the use of previous recipes. In addi- tion, this study shows the importance of promoting prevention actions with those responsible for the children and, thus, collaborating to minimize the negative ef- fects inherent to self-medication.