The Analysis of Selfmedication in outpatients treated for arterial Hypertension

This thesis describes self-medication practices in a sample of 67 patients treated for arterial hypertension attending the Advisory centre of clinical pharmacology in a Teaching Hospital in Hradec Králové. We survey both common aspects of self-medication such as how often patients use over-the-counter (OTC) agents, for which health problems, which are the main groups of OTC, they use, how much they spend for OTC and where they get information about them, and more specific aspects, which are related with the fact, that these patients are at higher risk of self-medication because of their permanent antihypertensive farmacotherapy. The survey showed, that 82% of the patients with arterial hypertension use OTC - 29% of them often or constantly. However, behaviour of these patients in self-medication is not without risks. For example only 18% of patients using OTC inform their physician about all preparations. 18% of patients are not interested in safety of OTC, they use, and only 31% of them inform their pharmacist of diseases, they are treated for, and prescription medicines, they use. The survey implied, that the safe self-medication of hypertensive patients requires better education of this group of patients, which needs assistance both from physicians and from pharmacists