[Thoughts on the qualitative improvement of self medication].

Self medication is a necessary and important aspect of health care and is frequently and successfully used. The citizen has a certain right to reasonable self medication. A small percentage of our population however uses self medication in a risky and uncritical way. This has medical and economical consequences. The characteristics of drugs, symptoms and diseases which lend themselves to self medication therefore have to be defined. This has consequences for regulatory decisions (prescription vs non-prescription-drugs) and reimbursement of costs by health insurance systems, but also for the training of physicians, pharmacists, government agencies and drug industry. An important aspect of a qualitative improvement of self medication is the information, education and counseling of the patient. In this regard the pharmacist plays an important role in the self medication with non-prescription drugs.