Abstract
Self-medication with modern pharmaceuticals in rural Thailand: Theoretical concepts and empirical findingsThe study aims to:1) make a critical review of theoretical concepts and studies concerning self-medication practices; 2) investigate self-medication behaviors of the rural Thais and’ 3) discuss research and policy implications regarding the promotion of rational drug use by consumers. The study uses two main methods: documentary review and the analysis of empirical materials. The existing data sets collected during a research project conducted by the author- The Implications of Community Health Workers Distributing Drugs- A Case Study of Thailand-.were relied upon in the second method. The study comprises six chapters. Chapter One and Chapter Two provide backgrounds of the study and the accounts of the methodology and data used respectively. Theoretical concepts and studies concerning drug use behaviors are reviewed and discussed in Chapter Three. Highlighted are the theoretical perspectives such as modern pharmaceuticals as cultural artifacts, health commodification, cultural reinterpretation, and role of the informal commercial drug sector on self-treatment. Empirical data are presented in Chapter Four and Chapter Five. Chapter Four describes the quantitative figures and general patterns of how and what drugs are used by the rural villagers to solve their ill-health problems. Beliefs and perception associated with drug choosing and evaluating (i.e., brand, provenance, form, physical attributes etc) are also described. Chapter five moves on to the qualitative accounts of how people’s self-medication practices are shaped. Case studies are presented to demonstrate how the community’s socio-cultural and economic contexts (i.e., the availability of drugs and drug sources, the marketing practice of local drug firms, life-hardships of the rural dwellers that underlie work-related ill-health and, subsequently, determine demand for drugs) condition people’s self-treatment. In Chapter Six, the author concludes and argues that self-medication is, in fact, a cultural phenomenon. Its pattern is shaped by a complex web of causes embedding in both local and structural levels. Any attempt to elevate people’s drug use problems will hardly achieve unless such a complexity is realized and brought into consideration.
