IMO, always avoid medication when possible for use other than recreational. It tends to cause as many (or more) problems as it solves. Pain medicine, for example, essentially gives you pain if you take it long enough. If you stop taking it, you will feel pain for no reason other than your body can't properly tell you that you aren't hurting because the medicine has been doing so artificially in its place.

That isn't to say that I'm against medicine altogether. It has its place. Using something as-needed seems to be the best approach. The less, the better.