Patients' expectations and intention to self-medicate.

I studied patients' expectations of receiving a prescription after a consultation with their general practitioner and their intention to buy a remedy from the chemist after leaving the surgery.Of a group of 368 patients, 56 per cent expected to receive a prescription and 24 per cent intended to self-medicate. A striking variation was found among patients attending each of the five doctors participating in the study. Patient expectation closely agreed with the prescribing rate per partner. No consistent relationship was found between a low prescribing rate and high self-medication rates. I suggest that by reducing prescribing and encouraging patients to be self-reliant in the management of minor ailments, it might be possible to reduce a general practitioner's workload and the amount of money spent on prescribing in general practice.