Nowadays people around the world are choosing to self-medicate rather than seeing a doctor and using conventional medicine. What are the causes of this change and what effects can be seen as a result?

It is a worldwide phenomenon that people prefer to heal themselves by their own methods rather than by a hospital with given drugs.

This

problem happens due to some reasons, and unfortunately brings many adverse consequences to the society. One of the main causes of the trend of self-medicate is cultural characteristics. In some tribes, especially in impoverished countries, people have their own beliefs on special cure treatment which could be handed down for later generations. In the face of illness, many ancient and traditional rituals are performed with the belief that the Ghost causing harm will disappear. For that reason, unfortunately these one ignore the advance of medical support.

Secondly

, the problem is accentuated by the unaffordable expense when visiting a doctor. The total cost for overall service contains many aspects

such

as: doctor’s medical examination, medicine, surgery,…, which could be a burden for every poor family. The denial of medical care might trigger some adverse outcomes to society. The clearest impact could be the decline of life expectancy.

This

results in the decrease of human health due to lack of accuracy and timely treatment, which can lead to unavoidable and dangerous situations;

for example

wrong wound treatment may cause infection.

Furthermore

, the slow development of worldwide medicine is another consequence of

this

issue. It is clear that the budget for medical experiments and new remedies depends mostly on the number of patients and the amount they pay.

Hence

, the decrease of investment could be raised by the ignorance of these people. To sum up, the growth of self-medicate could be a serious issue all over the world. It could be the result of cultural characteristics and unaffordable expenses, which adversely affect life expectancy and the development of world-wide medicine.