Popular medical concepts in Jamaica and their impact on drug use.

Universally, popular medical concepts form the basis of lay understanding of health, disease and cure. In Jamaica these concepts first developed in association with traditional herbal medicine. Now they are applied to the most common forms of primary care: over-the-counter and prescribed drugs. Research findings suggest that where there is disagreement between popular and professional medical models, as is the case in Jamaica, the effect of popular concepts is to increase self-medication and reduce adherence to prescribed medical regimens. To ameliorate this situation and the attendant potential risks for drug consumers, methods for providing needed drug information and improving physician-patient communication are suggested. These suggestions apply not only to Jamaicans living in Jamaica and the United States, but also to members of any group whose ethnomedical concepts differ from the biomedical training of physicians.