OBJECTIVE： To discover the existing problems of self-medication and make countermeasures and recommendations. METHODS： Using “ziwo yaoliao” “ziwo yongyao” “xianzhuang” “wenti” “Self-medication” “Self-medicine” “Status” as keywords， literatures were retrieved from CJFD， Wanfang database and PubMed from 2010 to 2015. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS： A total of 159 literatures were retrieved， including 19 effective literatures. Self-medication is a common phenomenon， but irrational self-medication is not rare either and is harmful to public health even life. There are many problems in self-medication， such as that the awareness of hazards is weak； the reading of drug instructions occupies low proportion and many people are also dyslexic； monitoring for self-medication of special group is poor； the antibiotics are abused. Relevant health departments should improve the awareness of the public to self-medication and the importance of reading drug instructions through various channels， such as lecture， public service advertising， throwaway， wall newspaper； improve the proportion of the public reading drug instructions by using simple， popular and easy to understand words or charts. The government should establish necessary laws and regulations to ensure the great importance of pharmaceutical enterprises to the formulation of drug instruction through rules， so as to promote the improvement of drug instruction. Related government departments should adopt individualized strategies and measures， such as strengthening self-medication monitoring in special group， developing self-medication safety plan from various sections of society， strengthening drug regulations for special group on the basis of law， publishing Medical Guideline for special group， enhancing the medication support for special group in R&D field. The self-medication monitoring of antibiotics can be strengthened through strengthening drug advertisement management， improving drug sale management， enhancing prescribing behavior of physicians.