Process health-sickness: perceptions and behaviours

Abstract

This article pretends to understand the health-disease concept (Population´s perception) and the patterns of the family self-medication practices and their relation with the official healing system in health centers and with parallel healins systems therapeutic itinerary). Despite the universal rigth of medical assistance for every citizen and in any ehalth service offered by the State (through Unique System oe Health) a significant number of the population finds, through heteregeneous and even antagonistic medical and religious channels, alternative form o ftreatment. We start with the hypothesis that the efficacy criteria of alternative medicine is understood not only from a technical oy symptomatic point of view, but also because they are linked to the patient´s different perceptions about the body, health and illness, which vary according to age, gender, lifestyle, gravity and frequency and are mainly due to two other categories, depending on the type of the disease, whether it be a "material of spiritual" one.