U5 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF MEDICINES

Question 1

Definition of medicine?

Answer 1

A substance with power to transform bodies, closely linked to the hisotry of humanity

Question 2

What are the characteristics of medicine?

Answer 2

1. Transformative power: cure, prevent, strengthen…
2. They are beneficial or harmful
3. Used to have an effect on the body, but have great power over minds
4. Have economic and political significance

Question 3

How is medicine a social and cultural phenomenon? (distinguish between the chemical or pharmacological properties and social or cultiral interpretation)

Answer 3

Taking a medicione is both social and medical act. Substances become significant within a cultural context and thus people use them for their purposes

Question 4

What is pharmaceutical anthropology?

Answer 4

The study of the connections between social and cultural processes, including knowledge, symbols, beliefs, politics…

Question 5

What does medicine have to do with social effectiveness?

Answer 5

What they offer and take from people and the social relationships of those involved

Question 6

What does the vision of the popularity regarding medicine consits on?

Answer 6

Producerss and sellers (lucrative) doctros and consumers (get cured)

Question 7

What is the symbolic power of medicines?

Answer 7

• Medicine helps understand and explain a subjective experience and make it objective (pain)
• They help paitents understand the illness and the causes intellectually

Question 8

What factors make medicine applealing?

Answer 8

• Legitimation: prescription confirms the illness and justifies the patient’s behaviour
• High-tech apperance (injections, pills)

Question 9

Scepticism consits in part of…

Answer 9

• Excessive prescription to shorten the visit to the doc
• The multiplication of medicine an obviuos example
• Commercial abuse (profit before health)
• Sceptics of different societies are not the same

Question 10

Stages of the life of a medicine?

Answer 10

1. Production and marketing
2. Cliinical: see medicine as indispensable for a doc to cure the patients
3. Distribution: pharmacistis and sellers
4. Consumers, patients and relatives

Question 11

More info about the live of medicine?

Answer 11

. The use of medicines show the intersection of cultural belifes and market tactics.
- The role of pharmaceutical companies: SELL THE ILLNESS BEFORE THE MEDICINE