فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Amidst corona virus disease‑2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic, disruption to theusual ways of life can lead to anxiety and feeling of being unsafe, which may be associated withself‑medication. The study was planned to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and self‑medicationduring COVID‑19 pandemic.MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross‑sectional study, data were collected through ananonymous online survey with questionnaire consisting of four sections: demographic data ofthe participants, validated COVID‑19 Anxiety Inventory Items, Self‑rating Anxiety Scale, andself‑medication practices during COVID‑19 pandemic. The data were organized and analyzed usingWindows Microsoft excel and SPSS software (Version 21). Descriptive statistics were calculated forall patient characteristics and survey responses. Analytical analysis included relationship betweenvarious parameters using Chi‑square test.RESULTS: A total of 1100 responses were received. Approximately half of the participants wereworried about getting severely ill. Majority reported reduced social contact (71.3%, n = 784) and alsocommunicated that the pandemic has influenced their use of safety measures (86.5%, n = 951). Theprevalence of mild‑to‑moderate, moderate‑to severe, and extremely severe anxiety cases were 23.1%,4.7%, and 0.54%, respectively. One‑fourth of the responders reported self‑medication, out of which60% were found to be anxious. Nonsteroidal anti‑inflammatory drugs were most commonly used.CONCLUSIONS: Rising to the present challenge will require integration across different sectors withthe immediate aim of getting people safely through the pandemic. As the world focuses on containingand delaying the spread of the COVID‑19, with burdened health‑care systems, we should not miss outon people with anxiety disorders and self‑medication problem, which may worsen with the pandemic.