Hardon A P
Soc Sci Med. 1987;25(3):277-92. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(87)90231-0.
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.
对常见儿童疾病中药物的使用情况进行了评估。评估了药物使用与医生处方的相关程度。关注了药物应用的社会背景。研究表明，大多数儿童疾病在未咨询医生的情况下得到治疗。在未咨询医生的病例中，有一半使用了药物——包括处方药和非处方药。止泻药和止咳糖浆等对症疗法最受欢迎。所使用的所有止泻药和近一半的止咳糖浆被认为不适用于常见儿童疾病。医生的处方行为与自我用药有许多有害的共同特征。此外，医生处方的例子似乎鼓励在自我用药时选择昂贵且往往危险的对症疗法。为减少自我用药中这种浪费且危险的药物使用，建议在国家层面进行药品分销和生产改革，并在社区层面开展药物使用教育。在实施此类政策时，更多地了解自我用药行为被认为至关重要。
