THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING ON SELF-MEDICATION

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), self-medication is the selection and use of medicines (including teas and traditional products) by people to treat self-diagnosed or psychiatric illnesses. The indiscriminate consumption and use of medicines in Brazil is a habit that is related to the difficult access to health services and the easy access of the population to commerce, where the product on the shelf is a prescription and only becomes a medicine when instructed by prescription or diagnosis and specific therapy. Pharmaceutical marketing has as main objective to publicize the medicines produced by the industry. As a good portion of advertisements presents some type of legal infraction, marketing has the power to become a dangerous instrument of inducing drug consumption. Considering the potential risks to consumer safety, the pharmacist has a very important role in guiding and intervening in the use of self-medication, ensuring health protection and promoting quality of life. According to ANVISA (2021), self-medication, especially at the time of a pandemic, led to even more concerns for health authorities, since there was still no evident pharmacotherapy for the prevention or treatment of covid 19 and the population needed awareness about the real risks that the The practice of self-medication can cause adverse reactions to health, including death.