Rational Self-Medication

Michael Darden and Nicholas Papageorge

No 25371, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We develop a model of rational self-medication in which individuals use potentially dangerous or addictive substances (e.g., alcohol) to manage symptoms of illness (e.g., depression) outside of formal medical care. A model implication is that the emergence of better treatments reduces incentives to self-medicate. To investigate, we use forty years of longitudinal data from the Framingham Heart Study and leverage the exogenous introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We demonstrate an economically meaningful reduction in alcohol consumption when SSRIs became available. Our findings illustrate how the effects of medical innovation operate, in part, through changes in behavior.

JEL-codes: I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-hea
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Michael E. Darden & Nicholas W. Papageorge, 2024. "Rational self-medication," Economics & Human Biology, .

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