The use of medication in infants in Alexandria, Egypt

In Egypt, the determinants and rationale for drug use among infants have not been previously studied. We give an overview of the use of prescribed and non-prescribed medication over a 1-month period in infants in Alexandria, Egypt. In 89.6% of cases mothers stated that their infants had suffered some ailments which necessitated intervention; 27.5% used traditional therapies or non-prescribed medication and 72.5% sought medical advice. The non-prescribed medicines used were mainly antispasmodics and antipyretics. This study provides the first overview of the frequency of use of non-prescribed medication in infants and detected some indicators of irrational drug prescribing by physicians.