Self Medication - advantages

Health care costs have increased enormously in the past few decades. This has resulted largely in health care needs exceeding the available financial resources. So it should come as no surprise that people will prefer a product that requires only the minimum cost, i.e. it is cost effective, but also that it saves time at the doctor’s clinic, i.e. it is a time efficient procedure. It also enhances a patient’s confidence in him (her) self to be able to simulate a doctor’s diagnosis all by him (her) self.
OTC products provide treatment in areas which do not get the required or desired importance.

Self medication has been used very widely to combat behavioural and psychological problems such as smoking. According to the latest WSMI statistics, a 152 percent increase in the use of nicotine replacement therapy in the US the first year after its switch to non-prescription status, yielded an estimated 1,14,000 to 3,04,000 new former smokers annually. That is up to 3,00,000 people each year who are able to reduce their risk of lung cancer, emphysema, stroke, heart attack and complications in pregnancy because of self-care products that help them stop. Today there are 1.1 billion smokers worldwide, and this number is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2025. Such readily available products, non-prescription nicotine etc., which help people quit smoking take on an even greater importance in view of this global hazard.

Many people are also reluctant to ask for a professional’s help when they are faced with “embarrassing conditions” or “socially taboo” conditions such as acne, constipation, diarrhoea, flatulence, dermatitis/eczema, pattern baldness, emergency contraception etc., are now able to have direct access to the treatment for these conditions.