52 Chapter 3 Only prescription medications that were used on a structural basis were counted. We scored different types of medication, but not their dosages. We did not score the following types of medication and self-medication: oily crèmes, Vaseline-like ointments, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins (even if they had been prescribed by a physician), nutritional supplements, homeopathic remedies, and medications or products to relieve dry mouth or dry eye (such as artificial tears or dry eye gel/ointment, pilocarpine tablets or eye drops, artificial saliva, and mouth moistening gels or sprays). On the other hand, the following products were viewed as medication: corticosteroids or other antiinflammatory crème/ointments and eye drops or eye gels with corticosteroid or other anti-inflammatory medicaments. But if a patient indicated clearly that he or she used over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs such as paracetamol or ibuprofen daily, these, too, were considered as medication.
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