Lecture 9: medicalisation & pharmacalisation Flashcards
What is an institution in sociology?
Sociologist us the term institution to refer to enduring social structures including medicine as a social institution
What is Biomedicine?
Biomedicine – medicine, science, & technology work together as one institution
What is Social control?
refers to the formal and informal methods used by a social group to ensure that individuals conform to social nornm and to protect the existing balance of power among groups.
What are Social control agents?
Individuals or groups ( such as parents and religious leaders) that enforce social norms
What are Norms?
Social rules that define correct behaviour in society
Expectations that are socially enforced
What are the concepts of medicalisation in medical sociology?
- how non-medical problem becomes defined as medical, usually in terms of illness and disorders
- the process by which health or behaviour conditions come to be defined and treated as medical issues
- the process by which certain events or characteristics of everyday life become medical issues, and thus come within the purview of doctors and other health professionals to engage with, study, and treat
- The process of medicalization typically involves changes in social attitudes and terminology, and usually accompanies (or is driven by) the availability of treatments
Examples of social problems as medical problems
●Obesity ●Menopause / Andropause ●Alcoholism ●Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) ●Learning disabilities ●Anxiety (e.g., social anxiety disorder) ●Childbirth / Infertility ●Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
What are the cons of technology in illness (Hofmann & Svenaeus)?
➢Technology may create illness by making persons experience their bodies and lives in new ways, e.g., by revealing underlying disease.
➢Technology may alter persons’ conception of themselves and their vulnerability as well as their behaviour by revealing disease risks.
➢Technology can affect and change an already present illness experience (e.g., diabetes)
➢Technology can shape illness experience by making new phenomena and areas of ordinary life subject to measurement, attention, medical interpretation, and management.
Doctors are expected to report to the authorities all diseases that carry the risk of mass infection
True or false?
True
What is the Risk of iatrogenic diseases?
Harm caused by medical interventions (e.g. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
What is the effects of Media coverage of health and medical matters?
Growing interest in health issues among general public
What is the result of Increasing medical knowledge?
Ability of doctors to intervene increased compared to past (e.g. psychotropic drugs for mental illness, plastic surgery, sterilization, anti-impotence, sex-change procedure, abortions, sleeping pills)
What are some developments in medical technology (e.g. disease prevention, treatments and investigative procedures)?
Vaccinations
Vitamins
Supplements
CT scans
Define Pharmaceuticalisation accord gin to Abraham (2010)
The process by which social, behavioural or bodily conditions are treated , or deemed to be in need of treatment/intervention, with pharmaceuticals by doctors, patients or both
What are the characteristics of selling sickness?
- Massive growth in drug markets – especially USA & Europe
- Highly profitable – 25% per year for most companies
- Sales uneven across the world – chronic health problems in ageing affluent societies – diseases of poverty?
- Disease mongering (Moynihan) – widening the boundaries of treatable illness e.g. restless leg syndrome