self-medication

American  

[self-med-i-key-shuhn] / ˈsɛlfˌmɛd ɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the use of medicine without medical supervision to treat one's own ailment.

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Example Sentences

This includes reducing infections through better water, sanitation and hygiene, improving vaccine uptake, strengthening hospital infection control policies, educating physicians and deterring self-medication by patients.

From BBC

While sick and avoidance behavior can be regularly observed in non-human animals, self-medication in the form of ingestion of specific plant parts is widespread in animals but exhibited at low frequencies.

From Science Daily

Like all self-medication behavior in non-human animals, the case reported in this study raises questions about how intentional these behaviors are and how they emerge.

From Science Daily

This possibly innovative behavior presents the first report of active wound management with a biological active substance in a great ape species and provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives and in the evolutionary origins of wound medication more broadly.

From Science Daily

Even though there is evidence of certain self-medication behaviors in animals, so far it has never been known that animals treat their wounds with healing plants.

From Science Daily