الفهرس 
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Abstract
•Two hundred patients were surveyed to study and assess self-medication in COPD and Bronchial asthma at Ain Shams University Hospitals. from that survey the following were obtained:
•Two hundred patients; 94 had a clinical diagnosis of asthma and the remaining 106 patients had a clinical diagnosis of COPD. Seventy five were inpatients at the Pulmonary Medicine Department of Ain Shams University Hospitals, while 125 patients were attending the outpatient clinic during the period between September 2010 and July 2011. They were 132 males and 68 females with a mean age of 47.3±13.4 years.
•It was found that forty two percent of patients were previously admitted at the hospital due to their chest condition either due to asthma or COPD exacerbation.
•Also, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference as regard the mean frequency of admission between the patients who were adherent to medical instructions and those who were not. While, there was statistically significant difference in the mean frequency of admission between the patients who were following up at OPC and those who were not. Also, there was highly statistically significant difference in the mean frequency of admission between the patients who were regular on their treatment and those who were not. This means that patients who performed self-management proper manner in form of adherence to medication, follow up at OPC and taking medication regularly can modify their frequency of hospital admission.
•Seventy one percent of patients were adherent to medical instructions. COPD patients were the most adherent to medical instructions (82.4%).
•The study showed that fifty seven percent of patients sought medical advices during exacerbation while sixty percent of patients opted to OTC.
•The results revealed that prior experience on use medications was the commonest cause for seeking OTC (85%) followed by Illness considered not serious 47.5%, lack of time 40.8% and the least was financial cause (27.5%).
•In our study, the commonest medications used among patients who sought OTC in exacerbation was cough mixtures (71.7%) followed by antibiotics (52.5%) and the least used was systemic steroids (15%).
•It was found that most of OTC medications were described previously by a physician (72.5%).
•The study revealed that most of patients did not prefer OTC (72%) and the commonest cause for not preferring OTC was side effects of medications (64.5%).
•The results showed that presence of side effects due to OTC medications were 40.8%, the most common side effect was tachycardia (82%)followed by tremor and GIT upset (46%) and majority of patients managed these side effects by stopping medications (38.8%).