[Drugs from the patient's viewpoint]

The author gives psychosocial consultation hours for single and aged persons at Basle. The present study is based, for one part, on her observations regarding problems of interhuman relations and, for the other part, on an inquiry she conducted with 122 patients during September and October 1979: 105 among them take drugs regularly, but only 8 of them were able to tell the exact name of their drug. Most of her patients take the opportunity of the prescription to establish a contact with a human being involved and this contact is important for them. The doctor is the "drug" they need; the dialogue with the doctor, the human touch is more relevant than any other therapy. Thus the drug may open way for a dialogue in both directions and in this context, the efficacy of the drug reaches far beyond which the pharmacologue may be able to prove. The drug prescribed by the doctor has become, in our world impoverished in the emotional field, the means of choice to ask the environment for help.