Self-medication and pharmaceutical advice during the COVID-19 pandemic in Oran

Introduction : the epidemic of Covid-19 has created generalized psychosis and anxiety. This could be linked, on the one hand to the high mortality observed in the word, and the other hand to the absence of specific therapy. Faced with this situation, many substances have been used without medical advice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the practice of self-medication in COVID-19 situation in Oran. Materials and methods : this is an observational cross- sectional survey carried out by an anonymous electronic questionnaire and distributed, by email, to pharmacist belonging to the regional ordinal section of pharmacist in Oran. The answers were analysed by the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results : A total of 69 responses were obtained. The proportion of pharmacists who noticed an increasing trend in self-medication was 58,0%. About a quarter of pharmacist had observed an increase in self- medication with hydroxychloroquin, at least no toxicity secondary to the use of this drug was observed. In this COVID- 19 epidemic situation, 91.3% of the study sample noted an increase in the use of vitamins and food supplements with frequent consumption of vitamin C at 1g/day as well as other vitamin comlexes based on vitamin D, vitamin B9 and iron for pregnant or breastfeeding women. Conclusion : Our study showed that during COVID-19 the tendency to self-medication increased. Self-medication with hydroxychloroquin was observed during this pandemic, although the use of other substances such as vitamins and food supplements was more frequent.