Self-medication, sometimes called do-it-yourself (DIY) medicine, is a human behavior in which an individual uses a substance or any exogenous influence to self-administer treatment for physical or psychological conditions, for example headaches or fatigue.
The substances most widely used in self-medication are over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements, which are used to treat common health issues at home. These do not require a doctor's prescription to obtain and, in some countries, are available in supermarkets and convenience stores.
The field of psychology surrounding the use of psychoactive drugs is often specifically in relation to the use of recreational drugs, alcohol, comfort food, and other forms of behavior to alleviate symptoms of mental distress, stress and anxiety, including mental illnesses or psychological trauma. Such treatment may cause serious detriment to physical and mental health if motivated by addictive mechanisms. In postsecondary (university and college) students, self-medication with "study drugs" such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Concerta has been widely reported and discussed in literature.
Products are marketed by manufacturers as useful for self-medication, sometimes on the basis of questionable evidence. Claims that nicotine has medicinal value have been used to market cigarettes as self-administered medicines. These claims have been criticized as inaccurate by independent researchers. Unverified and unregulated third-party health claims are used to market dietary supplements.
Self-medication is often seen as gaining personal independence from established medicine, and it can be seen as a human right, implicit in, or closely related to the right to refuse professional medical treatment.Three arguments against prescription requirements, Jessica Flanigan, BMJ Group Journal of Medical Ethics 26 July 2012, accessed 20 August 2013 Self-medication can cause unintentional self-harm. Self-medication with antibiotics has been identified as one of the primary reasons for the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.
Sometimes self-medication or DIY medicine occurs because patients disagree with a doctor's interpretation of their condition, to access experimental therapies that are not available to the public, or because of legal bans on healthcare, as in the case of some transgender people or women seeking self-induced abortion. Other reasons for relying on DIY medical care is to avoid health care prices in the United States and anarchist beliefs.
Definition Generally speaking, self-medication is defined as "the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, or the intermittent or continued use of a prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms".
Self-medication can be defined as the use of drugs to treat an illness or symptom when the user is not a medically qualified professional. The term is also used to include the use of drugs outside their license or off-label.
Psychology and psychiatry
Self-medication hypothesis As different drugs have different effects, they may be used for different reasons. According to the self-medication hypothesis (SMH), the individuals' choice of a particular drug is not accidental or coincidental, but instead, a result of the individuals' psychological condition, as the drug of choice provides relief to the user specific to his or her condition. Specifically, addiction is hypothesized to function as a compensatory means to modulate effects and treat distressful psychological states, whereby individuals choose the drug that will most appropriately manage their specific type of psychiatric distress and help them achieve emotional stability.
The self-medication hypothesis (SMH) originated in papers by Edward Khantzian, Mack and Schatzberg,Khantzian, E.J., Mack, J.F., & Schatzberg, A.F. (1974). Heroin use as an attempt to cope: Clinical observations. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 160-164. David F. Duncan, and a response to Khantzian by Duncan.Duncan, D.F. (1974b). Letter: Drug abuse as a coping mechanism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 174. The SMH initially focused on heroin use, but a follow-up paper added cocaine.Khantzian, E.J. (1985). The self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders: Focus on heroin and cocaine dependence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 1259–1264. The SMH was later expanded to include alcohol,Khantzian, E.J., Halliday, K.S., & McAuliffe, W.E. (1990). Addiction and the vulnerable self: Modified dynamic group therapy for drug abusers. New York: Guilford Press. and finally all drugs of addiction.Khantzian, E.J. (1999). Treating addiction as a human process. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
According to Khantzian's view of addiction, drug users compensate for deficient ego function by using a drug as an "ego solvent", which acts on parts of the self that are cut off from consciousness by defense mechanisms. According to Khantzian, drug dependent individuals generally experience more psychiatric distress than non-drug dependent individuals, and the development of drug dependence involves the gradual incorporation of the drug effects and the need to sustain these effects into the defensive structure-building activity of the ego itself. The addict's choice of drug is a result of the interaction between the psychopharmacologic properties of the drug and the affective states from which the addict was seeking relief. The drug's effects substitute for defective or non-existent ego mechanisms of defense. The addict's drug of choice, therefore, is not random.
While Khantzian takes a psychodynamic approach to self-medication, Duncan's model focuses on behavioral factors. Duncan described the nature of positive reinforcement (e.g., the "high feeling", approval from peers), negative reinforcement (e.g. reduction of negative affect) and avoidance of withdrawal symptoms, all of which are seen in those who develop problematic drug use, but are not all found in all recreational drug users. While earlier behavioral formulations of drug dependence using operant conditioning maintained that positive and negative reinforcement were necessary for drug dependence, Duncan maintained that drug dependence was not maintained by positive reinforcement, but rather by negative reinforcement. Duncan applied a public health model to drug dependence, where the agent (the drug of choice) infects the host (the drug user) through a vector (e.g., peers), while the environment supports the disease process, through stressors and lack of support.
Khantzian revisited the SMH, suggesting there is more evidence that psychiatric symptoms, rather than personality styles, lie at the heart of drug use disorders. Khantzian specified that the two crucial aspects of the SMH were that (1) drugs of abuse produce a relief from psychological suffering and (2) the individual's preference for a particular drug is based on its psychopharmacological properties. The individual's drug of choice is determined through experimentation, whereby the interaction of the main effects of the drug, the individual's inner psychological turmoil, and underlying personality traits identify the drug that produces the desired effects.
Meanwhile, Duncan's work focuses on the difference between recreational and problematic drug use.Duncan, D.F., & Gold, R.S. (1983). Cultivating drug use: A strategy for the 80s. Bulletin of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 2, 143-147. http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/263/1/Cultivating-Drug-Use/Page1.html Data obtained in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study demonstrated that only 20% of drug users ever experience an episode of drug abuse (Anthony & Helzer, 1991), while data obtained from the National Comorbidity Study demonstrated that only 15% of alcohol users and 15% of illicit drug users ever become dependent.Anthony, J., Warner, L., & Kessler, R. (1994). Comparative epidemiology of dependence on tobacco, alcohol, controlled substances and inhalants: Basic findings from the National Comorbidity Study. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2, 244-268. A crucial determinant of whether a drug user develops drug abuse is the presence or absence of negative reinforcement, which is experienced by problematic users, but not by recreational users. According to Duncan, drug dependence is an avoidance behavior, where an individual finds a drug that produces a temporary escape from a problem, and taking the drug is reinforced as an operant behavior.
Specific mechanisms Some people who have a mental illness attempt to correct their illnesses by using certain drugs. Depression is often self-medicated by the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or other mind-altering drugs.Self-Medication With Alcohol and Drugs by Persons With Severe Mental Illness While this may provide immediate relief of some symptoms such as anxiety, it may evoke and/or exacerbate some symptoms of several kinds of mental illnesses that are already latently present,Mental Illness: The Challenge Of Dual Diagnosis and may lead to addiction or physical dependency, among other side effects of long-term use of the drug. This does not differ significantly from the potential effects of drugs provided by physicians, which are equally capable of producing dependency and/or addiction and also have side effects arising from long-term use.
People with post-traumatic stress disorder have been known to self-medicate, as well as many individuals without this diagnosis who have experienced psychological trauma.Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Due to the different effects of the different classes of drugs, the SMH postulates that the appeal of a specific class of drugs differs from person to person. In fact, some drugs may be aversive for individuals for whom the effects could worsen affective deficits.
CNS depressants Alcohol and sedative/hypnotic drugs, such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines, are central nervous system (CNS) depressants that lower inhibitions via anxiolysis. Depressants produce feelings of relaxation and sedation, while relieving feelings of depression and anxiety. Though they are generally ineffective antidepressants, as most are short-acting, the rapid onset of alcohol and sedative/hypnotics softens rigid defenses and, in low to moderate doses, provides relief from depressive affect and anxiety. As alcohol also lowers inhibitions, alcohol is also hypothesized to be used by those who normally constrain emotions by attenuating intense emotions in high or obliterating doses, which allows them to express feelings of affection, aggression and closeness. Most patients that have been hospitalized for substance use or alcohol dependence reported using drugs in response to depressive symptoms; self-medication makes diagnosing a psychiatric disorder very difficult in substance abusers. This type of misuse is more likely in men than in women.
Alcohol
People with social anxiety disorder commonly use alcohol to overcome their highly set inhibitions.Sarah W. Book, M.D., and Carrie L. Randall, Ph.D. Social anxiety disorder and alcohol use. Alcohol Research and Health, 2002.
Psychostimulants