Self-medication is the use of medicines or herbs on one’s own initiative or on the advice of another person without consulting a doctor. It includes the use of medicines that were prescribed for a previous illness for a current illness (Bennadi D, et al 2016). Self-medication also encompasses the use of the medicines by the users for self-perceived health problems or the continuing use of medications formally prescribed earlier. The scope of the definition includes treatment of family members specially to minors and elderly (World Health Organization, 2022). Medicines for self-medication are often referred to as Over the Counter (OTC) drugs. These are available from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription (Pwar et al., 2019). The FDA (2016) defines OTCs as a drug product marketed for use by the consumer without the intervention of a health care professional in order to obtain the product. Medicines for self-medication are often referred to as Over the Counter (OTC) drugs. These are available from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription (Pwar et al., 2019). These OTC however include analgesics which by Pwar et al., 2019 are the most used for self-medication. Analgesics are defined as drugs that relieves pain. Analgesics are classified as opioids and non-opioids (e.g. NSAIDs). Co-analgesics or adjuvants are drugs that have a primary indication other than pain but are analgesic in some conditions. For example, antidepressants and anticonvulsants also act to reduce nociceptive transmission in pain. The efficacy and effectiveness of any given analgesic varies widely between individuals. Analgesics also have a relatively narrow therapeutic window, and drug dosages are often limited by the onset of adverse side-effects. For these reasons, an analgesic should be titrated for an individual patient until an acceptable balance is achieved between subjective pain relief and adverse drug effects. (Michael C. Lee, Mark Abrahams, in Clinical Pharmacology (Eleventh Edition), 2012). 2 Globally Self-medication of analgesics has been on the rise, reports SHERAZI et al (2012), especially in economically deprived communities. The report adds that in developing countries, people are not only using non-prescription analgesics drugs but also prescription analgesics drugs as self-medication products, without supervision. Self-medication has been a problem for public health globally, especially in under developed countries where healthcare services are not readily available and socioeconomic factors resulting in the increased proportion of self-medication, says

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