Self-medication (SM) involves the administration of medication to treat symptoms or complications with no medical prescription, depending on the experience or knowledge of the individual. SM can result in severe consequences due to allergy to medications and medication interactions that the individual does not know. The present study aimed at assessing the prevalence and practice of SM among Saudi students and adolescents by reviewing the previous Saudi studies conducted on this subject. The medical literature explored PubMed and Google scholar databases from 2015 to 2021. The included searching terms were a combination of SM and Saudi students, SM and Prevalence, SM and Saudi Adolescents, and Saudi prevalence and SM. The inclusion criteria included original articles conducted on Saudi students and adolescents and full text articles. A total of 70 articles were obtained. Only nine articles were eligible for the inclusion criteria. The nine studies included a total number of 3,265 participants and covered seven regions of Saudi Arabia. Analgesics were the most commonly used medication, and the main cause for SM was a headache, whereas the significant purpose of practicing SM was saving time. SM is highly prevalent and practiced by Saudi students and adolescents; practicing SM was also high regardless of the participants specialty; it was also high among medical students.
Key words: Self-medication, Saudi students, Saudi adolescents, prevalence, practice
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