This scientific work explains the risks of self-medication with a focus on the elderly. It is a scientific investigation that supports the ills for the health of those who practice such acts of self-medication. The method used for the elaboration of this work was the bibliographic analysis that has the objective of providing means that assist in the exploration of the theme that is self-medication in the elderly, as well as allowing to explore new areas where they have not yet crystallized sufficiently. The data were collected in the databases for scientific work, Scielo, Bireme, Virtual Library and Samde. The results showed that 40 samples were collected, however, with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, cited in the materials and methods, leaving 20 articles to give theoretical support to the research project, for the total of the 20 samples collected , there is an average in the quantity of articles, thus, there are 2 articles for each year, and only the years 2019 and 2009, 3 articles were obtained. self-medication is very common among people, and it is a very serious health problem, and in old age, where they are already weak and their health is fragile. Most drugs are easily accessible, thus generating a routine of purchases and drug intakes without the necessary pharmaceutical monitoring.