SELF-MEDICATION

Self-medication is the selection and use of medicines by a person or a person’s family to treat self-recognised or self-diagnosed conditions or symptoms.

Appropriate self-medication may have several benefits such as easy access to medication, mental and physical relief for the patient, the patient having an active role in his or her own health care, use of physicians and pharmacists’ skills, and reduced responsibility of governments in regards to the amount of spending which is linked to the treatment of minor health conditions.

However, self-medication can be an extremely unsafe practice, in particular in the case of irresponsible self-medication. There are potential risks of self-medication such as wrong diagnosis, delays in seeking medical advice, severe reactions to mistreatment, dangerous drug mixing and interactions, wrong methods and amounts of drug administration and risk of dependence on and abuse of drugs.

Self-medication is also linked to the current crisis of antibiotic resistance, which threatens the entire population of the world. The more antibiotics are used, the more resistant the bacteria can become. The reason is that only weak and sensitive bacteria are killed by antibiotics but stronger germs resist the treatment and grow and multiply after treatment. Repeated and improper use of antibiotics contributes to this process.