Self-Administration

Self-administration in medicine is the process of a patient administering a pharmacological substance to themselves, such as the subcutaneous self-injection of insulin by a person with diabetes. As a treatment approach it lets a patient independently manage the delivery of their own medication rather than relying on a provider to administer it, which is particularly relevant for chronic conditions that require regular dosing; the term also describes a research method in addiction studies, where animals are conditioned to self-administer drugs to study patterns of substance dependence and to test potential treatments.