The use of modern pharmaceuticals in a Filipino village: doctors' prescription and self medication.

The use of pharmaceuticals in common childhood illnesses is evaluated. The extent to which drug use is related to doctors' prescription is assessed. Attention is paid to the social context in which pharmaceuticals are applied. The study shows that the majority of the childhood illnesses are treated without consulting a doctor. In half of the cases, in which no doctor is consulted, pharmaceuticals--both prescription and nonprescription--are used. Symptomatic therapies as anti-diarrhoeals and cough syrups are found to be most popular. All of the anti-diarrhoeals and nearly half of the cough syrups used, are considered unsuitable for use in common childhood illnesses. Prescription practices by doctors have many harmful characteristics in common with self medication. Moreover, the example of doctors' prescriptions seems to encourage the choice for expensive, often dangerous, symptomatic therapy in self medication. To diminish this wasteful and dangerous use of drugs in self medication, reforms in distribution and production of drugs at national level and education in drug use at the community level are recommended. More knowledge of self medication practices is considered crucial in the implementation of such policies.