Phytotherapy and dismedicalization in Primary Health Care: a possible way?

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Artur Alves da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Padilha, Wandson Alves Ribeiro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.rbmfc.org.br/rbmfc/article/view/2521
• topic: Phytotherapy; Medicalization; Quaternary Prevention; Fitoterapia; Medicalización; Prevención Cuaternaria; Fitoterapia; Medicalização; Prevenção Quaternária

Introduction: The use of phytotherapy in health care is accessible, reliable, and culturally accepted, and it is recognized that about 80% of the world population makes use of medicinal plants. In the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS), based on the Sanitary Reform movement and popular and institutional interests, the National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Phytotherapeutics was created, which encouraged the implementation of several phytotherapy programs in Brazil. Despite this rise of phytotherapy in the SUS, medicalization continues to influence clinical practice and make individuals increasingly susceptible to unnecessary interventions that often end up causing damage. Objective: To discuss possibilities of using phytotherapy to face overmedicalization to promote quaternary prevention in Primary Health Care. Methods: This is a theoretical essay based on the contextualization of the possibility of facing medicalization within the SUS from the perspective of Phytotherapy. Results: The theoretical framework started with a brief review of the advance of medicalization in the SUS, then considering phytotherapy as an accessible and widespread practice among the Brazilian population as a possibility to reduce medicalization when correlated with the Person-Centered Clinical Method. Conclusions: Phytotherapy can be an ally of the practice of quaternary prevention by making it possible to meet traditional and technical-scientific knowledge, enabling an alternative care method to the medicalizing logic.