Self medication pattern for dandruff treatment among pharmacy students

Abstract

Dandruff is a common scalp disorder distressing almost half of inhabitants the at the pre-pubertal age and of any gender.No populace in any geographical region would have passed freely without being affected by dandruff in their life at some stage.Thinng out the skin and cause other side effects are caused by non prescription preparation (OTC),if used for a long period of time. To help keep dandruff under control, there are lots of OTC products available . To evaluate the prevalence of self medication pattern for dandruff treatment among students a 15 item web based questionnaire was developed and employed to collect data (validated by the institutional ethical committee) from pharmacy students at Ezhuthachan College of pharmaceutical sciences. The survey will gather demographic information and collect data on about the usage, type of antidandruff product,content included and side effect experienced etc.Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. 76% of the respondents had dandruff problem and among them, 67% experienced hair loss,53% had acne and 31% experienced itching and 11% experienced skin rashes due to dandruff problem. 41% of the respondents adopted self medication strategy .Out of them 45% used ketoconazole shampoo and most of them experienced hairloss due to the usage of shampoo. Prevalence of self-medication for dandruff problem was alarming high. It is necessary to educate the students for diagnosis and treatment of Dandruff problems. The relevant data obtained through this study will help know about the prevalace of the self medication pattern and to aware about future complications.