 Background: The use of Self-medication among the rural area is increasing due to various factors like socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, previous experience of treating a similar illness, ready access to drugs and the increased potential to manage mild illness through self- care.  Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among adults aged 16 years & above residing in the selected rural area Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Samples were selected using simple random sampling. Totally 110 participants were selected for the study. Data was collected by interview using semi- structured pretested questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to calculate the frequency and percentage.  Findings: Majority of the participants were between 3145yrs (44.5%). An overwhelming percentage of 83.6 % were females. The commonest reason for self medication was reported that it is not required to consult physician for minor illness (52.7%). Regarding the source of information for self-medication more than half of the participants 56.3% reported their own experience as source. The common ailments necessitating selfmedication in the current study were head ache(83%.6), cold (29.1%), cough(17.3%), acidity(40%), fever(40%), body pain(50%) etc.  Conclusions: There is a varying spread of the self medication practices and patterns among the rural areas of India. Easy availability of over the counter (OTC) drugs is a vital factor responsible for the self medication and dependency. People in rural areas need to be encouraged to avail health services from Government which is free of cost.

Keywords : Self-medication, Patterns, practices, rural population.