Self Medication Academic Paper Summary

HEALTH is the most precious thing we have and we are all interested in staying healthy. We therefore have to make constant personal efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Nevertheless no one stays free of health problems. There are many forms of minor health problems which are inevitable and have to be accepted as consequences of living. They may be hard to avoid but can be improved and often relieved by self-medication medicines or other self-care measures.

The question is what is self medication:

The use of medicines available without prescription is nowadays generally accepted as an important part of healthcare. It is in line with the growing desire of everybody to take more responsibility for their own health. When practised correctly, self-medication can also save expenses for the national healthcare systems. It can simply be called a rational use of medicines.

  All medicines including self-medication medicines are made to the same EU standards of safety, quality and efficacy.

Senator Tambling said. Media Contact:

Self Care Medication is a specific range of medicinal products which are freely sold in the Netherlands. For this range of products, a doctor’s prescription is not required.

Thus far, the sales routes for these products already exist for pharmacies and convenient stores.

Recently, other sales points have been permitted to offer Self Care Medication.

The main idea behind JourneyCare is to release a limited assortment of Self Care Products which have been deemed safe for OTC sales by the national Department of Health

The self-medication hypothesis proposes that addiction to alcohol and other drugs results from their use for relief from dysphoria resulting from an underlying disorder or condition -- such as stress. <1>

On the basis of psychodynamic/psychiatric diagnostic findings and clinical observations, Khantzian (1985b) proposed a model of self medication as an etiological factor in substance abuse. He suggested psychotropic drug effects interact with psychiatric disturbances and "painful affect states" to predispose some individuals to addictive disorders. The addict's choice of drug is thought to be the result of the interaction between the psychopharmacologic properties of the drug and the "primary feeling states" experienced. In this way, the drug effect is thought to substitute for defective or non-existent ego mechanisms of defense .

A number of clinical findings have supported the hypothesis that the preference for a specific drug is not random, but rather, appears to be a process of "self selection" ^<2>This course of self selection has also been referred to as "preferential drug use" ^<3> and "the drug of choice" phenomenon^<4>.

Medical doctors agree that:

Self-medication is the use by patients of non-prescription medicines for symptoms and minor ailments. The patient bears the full responsibility for his own treatment. Medical doctors and community pharmacists have a very important role to play in providing assistance, advice and information to the patients about self-medication and the rational use of medicines. (Medicines manufacturers are the basic information providers on medicinal products.)

Facts To Be Concerned:

  The period for which you can self-medicate will vary according to circumstances, but should not normally be longer than three to seven days.

  Self-medication is not appropriate and you should consult a medical doctor in the following situations:

1.        symptoms have persisted

2.      condition worsens or recurs worse than before

3.     patient has severe pain

4.     patient has  tried one or more medicines without success

5.     pateint experience unwanted effects

6.     pateint think your symptoms are serious

7.     pateint has  psychological problems like anxiety(1), unease(2), depression(3), lethargy(4), agitation(5), or hyper-excitability(6).

           one should pay specific attention if she s pregnant or breastfeeding or when the ailment concerns babies and infants.