Conscientização do uso de medicamentos: uma abordagem aos olhos da química para o ensino médio.

Abstract

Self-medication is defined as the use of medication without prescription from the doctor or dentist. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) this practice has become a serious problem worldwide estimating that half of the population self-medicates. In Brazil it is estimated that 80 million people perform this practice and among this population the majority are young people and adolescents. Pardo and Silva et al verified in their studies considerable percentages of adolescents who use medicines on their own: 45% and 20,8% respectively. Another alarming fact is that of the entire population that does not read the package insert, 51% are young people and adolescents. Through these data we can note that self-medication has become a daily fact and public health and these adolescents need to be made aware of this practice. The purpose of this work was to raise awareness using high school chemistry content to show the risks of irrational drug use by promoting everyday approach and interdisciplinarity, interaction with the class through dynamics, experimentation and questioning in an lecture. Two questionnaires and one lecture were held. The first questionnaire was applied before class and from the data obtained about 67% of students said they practice self-medication and reported that the main reason for the practice would be the lack of information about the risks. Of the most commonly used drugs, painkillers topped the list. The class was designed to raise awareness and inform students through the chemistry and data on the package inserts. After class, all students stated that the content is related to daily life and that the information is important for their formation showing that the class was in accordance with the PCNS proposal. Moreover, the class was enlightening about concepts that did not understand how drug interaction and adverse reaction and chemistry was important for understanding the risks. Regarding awareness, 83% of students say that they will be more careful when taking medication and 38% of students will only take medication with a doctor's indication and no student intends to continue using it irresponsibly.