Dr. Ajaz Afzal Lone
loneasrar0@gmail.com
Science and technology will always be linked to human welfare and social development, especially in medical science, where scientific knowledge has saved lives and enhanced the quality of living. however the application of medical knowledge without proper expertise or professional guidance, it can create serious risks instead of benefits. Traditionally, this issue was the most evident among the general illiterate or less-educated people, who often found it difficult to distinguish between qualified doctors and pharmacists. In Kashmir, this practice became common, where individuals would go and buy medicines directly in medical stores without consulting a doctor. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, this challenge has not disappeared; it has merely shifted. Today, even educated and digitally literate people increasingly rely on AI-based health advice, symptom investigation on the Internet and app-based interpretations of medical tests. As a result, self-medication is no longer limited to the ill-informed; it has become rampant among the literate too, and is a new and more complicated stage of an old public health issue.
Self-medication has quietly become a part of everyday life in Kashmir. What was once limited to taking a painkiller or cough syrup without consulting a doctor has now become a more serious practice due to the increasing healthcare expenses, the inability to visit a public hospital, and the increased role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health guidance. In the Valley, people are increasingly relying on AI-powered symptom checker applications, web searches, and online pharmacies to make decisions on the kinds of medicines to use. While these tools promise quick and easy solutions, they often encourage people to diagnose themselves and consume medicines without professional guidance. This trend is worrying, especially in a region where healthcare access is already fragile. One of the biggest reasons behind this growing dependence on self-medication is the high cost of private healthcare. Visiting a private doctor has become unaffordable for many families, particularly for chronic or recurring illnesses. Consultation fees, diagnostic tests, and branded medicines together create a financial burden that pushes people toward cheaper alternatives, often self-prescribed medication or online advice.
Government hospitals, which are meant to be a reliable alternative, are often located far from rural and border areas. Reaching them involves long travel, transportation expenses, and loss of daily wages. Even when government facilities are nearby, Patients often complain about overcrowding in the government facilities, long queues and lack of specialists, even when the facilities are close by. These practical difficulties make self-medication seem like a convenient option. Another issue often discussed in public discourse is the perceived influence of pharmaceutical companies on prescriptions. Most patients believe that some doctors prescribe specific branded medicines due to company incentives rather than medical necessity.
Studies and reports by health policy experts have highlighted how aggressive pharmaceutical marketing can affect prescribing behaviour. This perception, whether fully accurate or not, has undermined and diminished the trust of people in institutional healthcare and continues to motivate individuals to trust their judgment or AI technologies in treatment.
According to clinical research by medical colleges of the region, self-medication is prevalent even among individuals with formal medical training. According to a survey that was carried out on undergraduate medics in three colleges in Kashmir, almost half of the respondents acknowledged having engaged in self-medication, with a large proportion of the drugs used being antibiotics. This is especially worrying because this is a display of a normalisation of unsupervised drug use, even among future healthcare professionals. The trend does not depend on the urban or educated population. In a different study conducted in one of the rural primary health centres in Jammu and Kashmir, it was discovered that the majority of the patients had self-medicated within the previous year, and this was mainly due to basic illnesses like fever, headache and body pains. Among the medicines that were used, antibiotics were mentioned as leading, whereas the awareness of antibiotic resistance was identified as being very low. These results suggest that self-medication is ingrained in digital health activities as well as the daily rural healthcare behaviour.
Gender aspect can also be pointed out in self-medication patterns in Kashmir based on the cultural norms and the barriers to access. Women, especially in conservative or remote families, might not be able to visit a clinic without male escorts, and digital health tools would provide an appealing and discreet alternative. On the other hand, men in labour-intensive occupations may self-medicate more commonly due to musculoskeletal pain or injuries, so that they do not miss out on wages. The resulting health-seeking behaviour also makes the work of the public health harder because the health problems peculiar to women, like gynaecological or reproductive problems, are not commonly diagnosed by healthcare professionals, and thus they are frequently self-treated, causing more problems of improper treatment and longer delay to the treatment.
The Indian health authorities have recently reiterated the importance of establishing stringent practices in prescription rules following the realisation of increased abuse of antibiotics and other medicines posing high risks. The potential consumer has been made well aware through the government Red Line campaign that those medicines that have a red vertical line prominently seen, especially antibiotics, should not be taken without a prescription from a doctor. It has been pointed out by health officials that these warnings are not advisory in nature, but legal and pharmacists have been instructed to fill such medicine only under a valid prescription. According to the current drug laws, antibiotics and several strong medicines come under Schedule H and Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, thus their sale over the counter is considered to be unlawful. The relevant authorities, especially the Directorate General of Health Services, have on numerous occasions cautioned that such breaches of these regulations are directly linked to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, a worldwide epidemic of health, which has already emerged in India. In Kashmir, where online advice and AI-driven platforms are likely to influence self-medication, these regulations are poorly enforced, which threatens to legitimise unsafe drug use.
The World Health Organisation noted that unregulated self-medication may result in to delayed diagnosis of serious diseases, harmful drug interactions, and rising drug resistance. These dangers are magnified in regions like Kashmir, where social, economic, and infrastructural challenges already limit healthcare outcomes. The solution does not lie in rejecting technology. AI can play a supportive role in healthcare, but only when used a responsible manner and regulated properly. What Kashmir urgently needs is affordable private healthcare, accessible and well-equipped public hospitals, ethical medical practices, stronger enforcement of drug laws, and greater public awareness about the dangers of unsupervised medication. Without addressing these root causes, self-medication driven by economic pressure and amplified by AI will continue to grow silently, at a high cost to public health.
A multi-layered intervention plan is needed to adequately address the increasing AI-induced self-medication crisis in Kashmir. On the policy and regulatory level, the governments should strictly implement the current prescription legislation, especially in the rural and border-line pharmacies by monitoring these cases, imposing harsh punishment in case of violation, and empowering the drug inspectors. At the same time, the technological aspect needs to be harnessed in a responsible way, and this means creating and promoting government-approved, transparent AI health advisories in local languages such as Kashmiri and Urdu, applications meant to screen symptoms and refer the users to professional care, rather than issue an unsupervised diagnosis. Community-level involvement is essential on the ground: the continuous awareness campaign among the population should be established through schools, religious institutions, and local media and inform citizens about the harmfulness of antibiotic resistance, as well as about the risks of uninformed prescribing. Lastly, the fundamental healthcare framework must be reinforced by means of affordable personal solutions, affordably furnished and conveniently situated state hospitals with reduced waiting time, and ethical medical solutions to gain the trust of the people. The region can only reduce this silent threat through such an integrated solution of stricter regulation, responsible technology, grassroots education and systemic reform of healthcare as the only means to protect long-term public health.
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