Perfil de medicamentos utilizados por estudantes universitários por automedicação em tempos de pandemia da COVID-19: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Objective: to know about the profile of drugs used by self-medication in university students during the pandemic for prevention against COVID-19 and self-medication for other reasons. Methods: integrative review of the literature, with a structured search on April 30, 2022 in the databases Scielo, Pubmed, Embase, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, Scopus, VHL, Google Scholar and the Catalog of theses and dissertations of CAPES by means of registered descriptors not MESH and DeCS. A search in the literature and selection of two studies was carried out by two authors and any divergence was resolved by consensus. Results: We selected 35 studies. Two 35 studies reported self-medication for the prevention of COVID-19, and the main drugs used by self-medication were paracetamol, ivermectin, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine; Four studies reported self-medication for specific symptoms and the main medications used were muscle relaxants, antibiotics, and Adderall®, Ritalin®, Vyvanse® or dexedrine®; 19 studies reported various reasons why students self-medicate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the main medications used are analgesics, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antibiotics, antiallergics and antihistamines; and four studies did not report the reason for the use of drugs by self- medication. Conclusions: In the included studies, it can be observed that the irrational use of medications is a frequent practice by university students, and that there was a high percentage of self-medication by this population during the COVID- 19 pandemic.