3. Medicalization is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions, and thus become One example of medicalization is with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the categorization and construction of categories of mental disorder. One positive aspect about the medicalization of mental health is that it leads us to search for their genetic roots, to assess other individual risk factors, and search for treatments for mental health, a condition that prior to medicalization had been overlooked. On the other hand medicalization has negative consequences. By giving the sufferer a sick role, medicalization can stigmatize as well as protect an individual resulting …show more content…
One particular example is with the response from the LGBTQ community to the HIV/AIDs Crisis in the United States. Sociologist Steve Epstein states that, “The AIDS movement...was built on the foundation of the gay and lesbian movement and borrowed from its particular strengths and inclinations” Specificalyy the LGBTQ community protested lack of access to crucial antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that were needed by many members of their community. Pharmacutilizaion of these ARVs barred access to these drugs. Pharmaceuticalization can be defined as “the process by which social, behavioral, or bodily conditions are treated, or deemed to be in need of treatment/intervention, with pharmaceuticals by doctors, patients or both”. The politics of treatment access fuel much activism of the LGBTQ community which overall resulted in government intervention in making ARVs more readily available and …show more content…
The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 was the first international statement emphasizing the importance of primary health care in reducing global health disparities. The Declaration defined primary health care as a collaborative effort involving all participants in the health system, from individuals and communities, to health providers, to national health services. Key issues discussed in the Alma Ata principles that are relevant today are Appropriate technology, Medical elitism, Health as a tool for development (“intersectoral” approach). Specifically with appropriate technology we face the issue of finding technology that most effectively meets people's’ needs in developing or limited resource settings. This can be viewed in lack of access to sophisticated prenatal care in underdeveloped countries which may require access to ultrasound machines. “Reductions in global health disparities would be supported by practical, effective and socially acceptable technologies that are accessible, affordable by community and national health systems, encourage self reliance, and result from participatory processes” (Alma Ata 1978). In the case of medical elitism they called against the use of external consultants from Western Europe/US or Global North and against the emphasis on technical/biomedical interventions (magic bullet approach). Using a nuanced and historically deep approach prevents such elitism issues from occurring. Lastly the Alma Ata called for the reduction in health
The concepts discussed within the article regarding medicalization and changes within the field of medicine served to be new knowledge for me as the article addressed multiple different aspects regarding the growth of medicalization from a sociological standpoint. Furthermore, the article “The Shifting Engines of Medicalization” discussed the significant changes regarding medicalization that have evolved and are evidently practiced within the contemporary society today. For instance, changes have occurred within health policies, corporatized medicine, clinical freedom, authority and sovereignty exercised by physicians has reduced as other factors began to grow that gained importance within medical care (Conrad 4). Moreover, the article emphasized
Preventative medicine comes with the potential for making our lives both better and worse. Today the world in which we live in has faced steady medicalization of daily existence. Many factors have contributed to the rise of medicalization. For instance the loss in religion, the increase of faith in science, rationality, progress, increased prestige and the power of the medical profession. The medical profession and the expansion of medical jurisdiction were prime movers for medicalization. Medicalization has also occurred through social movements. Doctors are not the only ones involved in medicalization now, patients are active collaborators in the medicalization of their problem. Critics try to argue for or against the idea that this leads to a favorable versus a non -favorable outcome. This increased establishment and development of medicine, including technoscience, has resulted in a major threat to health. The medicalization of normal conditions, risks the creation of medical diagnoses that are widely inclusive and that hold the potential for further expansion. Many biologically normal conditions, like shortness, menopause, and infertility, are currently considered medical problems. These naturally occurring states are now regarded as undesirable and deviant. This process is referred to as medicalization. Although they are considered deviant, however, the process of medicalization also removes culpability: a person’s problems can be ascribed to a chemical imbalance rather than seen as reflecting his or her character or accomplishments. Some of the articles I will be looking into are Dumit’s “Drugs for life” as well as Healy’s “Pharmageddon” and Cassel’s “Selling Sickness” to explore if this process of overmedicalization has le...
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland writes in a 2002 paper she presented to the XVIII European Congress of Perinatal Medicine, “There is an ongoing “epidemic” of cesarean sections in Asia and Latin America. This worldwide fad of obstetrical interventions may have a serious negative health impact on women. In contrast, the low rates observed in Africa reflect a lack of resources more than a consensus of providers. The commercial and litigation pressures that drive this ‘epidemic’ need to be countered.” Her medical metaphor notwithstanding, this is a serious wake-up call for women to be asking the question, “What is going on that this phenomenon of major surgery on women is happening on such a wide scale?”
Mental illness is an increasing problem in America. Currently about 26.2% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. A mental illness/disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others and daily functions. Mental illness can affect humans of any age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. However the care that is needed to effectively cure and help the people affected by the illness is not equal for everyone here in American, especially for African Americans.
Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.
Conrad, Peter. The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
Certain labels the western culture has can vary tremendously and may even be non-existent in different cultures. Labeling for example is not accepted in certain cultures, for example in Muslim communities having a mental health condition is associated with a negative stigma and access to the sick role for mental health is not accepted. In return this stigma causes people to not even seek care or treatment. Such as seen in the study conducted by Oman, Al-Adawi and colleagues (2002) found that groups believed that mental illness is caused by spirits and rejected genetics as a significant factor. In the same study, both groups endorsed common stereotypes about people with mental illness and affirmed that psychiatric facilities should be segregated from the community.(3) This stigma in itself shows that different cultures do not have the same attitude and acceptance of the DSM’s labels, which results in different ethnocentric approaches to handle mental illness, labeling people and the access to health care for these
In conclusion, the ultimate significance to this type of work is to improve the quality of healthcare in these extremely impoverished nations. This argument is represented in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right”, and Darshark Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” The idea that universal healthcare is a human right is argued against in Michael F. Cannon’s “A “Right” to health care?” Cannon claims that it would not work, and fills the holes that the other authors leave in their arguments. All of these articles share the same ultimate goal, and that is to provide every individual with adequate health care, and to not let so many people die from things that could easily have been prevented or treated.
The importance of mental health and its effect on individuals has been underestimated. The stigma and discrimination of those affected by mental disorders still exists today. The advancing technology and thorough research are slowly moving towards a less discriminating and better understanding of mental health. More and more patients especially children and adolescents are being diagnosed with different mental disorders. Not enough programs and grants are given to screen and protect children from developing mental illness conditions. In order to maintain mental health’s importance and decrease the stigma associated with it, further education, prevention, and promotion is necessary.
Moreover, the labeling perspective on mental illness... was first formulated decades ago, when mental hospitals were the predominant type of care for persons with mental health problems… Patients were described as undergoing a moral career, which involved the loss of all previous roles because of the way mental health care was structured, and which finally lead to a so-called spoiled identity, the result being that reintegration in society was very difficult, if not impossible (Verhaeghe et al.
Mental health can be seen as a continuum where illnesses are defined as patterns of behaviour that cause psychological suffering, distress and disability preventing adequate functioning with the potential of risk of harm to the self or others (Martins-Mourao, 2010, p. 92).
In the past, mental illness was taboo to discuss and there was fear surrounding the topic. However, remarkable strides have been made in figuring out the causes of the disease and weighing the most effective treatments specialized for each specific disease. According to the American Psychotic Association, “A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.”
Mental illness refers to a broad range of mental health conditions. Mental illnesses have many consequences such as struggling with day to day life, work, relationships, and more. The disease can make people miserable resulting in poor decision making, inappropriate coping mechanisms, and in worse cases death. Mental health problems are challenging and can go undetected for a long period of time. Suicide, self esteem, mental health, school, and treatment are all factors that are difficult with one who is suffering with a mental illness. There are many consequences for those suffering from mental illness if they are untreated, but it is possible to overcome mental illness with correct diagnosis, appropriate medication, supplemented with alternative therapies.
Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in North America and Europe in every community costing the U.S. over half a trillion dollars per year. Mental health is defined as the emotional and social wellbeing and psychological resources for dealing with the day-to-day problems of life. Mental illness is the term describing all mental disorders. Mental disorders are health conditions that are identified by changes in thinking and behavior. Mental disorders as well as mental impairment can occur from postnatal exposure to physical, chemical, and biological agents, like secondhand cigarette smoke. Brain function impairment can be caused by trauma, such as a car crash or bullet wound, or by disease, such as syphilis, cancer, or stroke. Maladaptive family functioning (such as having a parent with mental illness, or substance abuse problem) poverty, experiencing violence, physical or sexual abuse, or neglect can also lead to mental illness. Growing up in neighborhoods marked by social division leads to discrimination, and social hardship adds to the risk.
Mental illness is the condition that significantly impede with an individual’s emotional, cognitive or social abilities (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). According to (Savy and Sawyer, 2009) neurological, metabolic, genetic and psychological causes are contributing factors for various types of mental illness like depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse and progression of condition. An elaborate system known as DSM-IV-TR gives a classification system that acts to separate mental illness into diagnostic categories based on the description of symptoms of illness (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). The exact primarily causes of mental illness are complicated, however, it seems to occur in a psychologically and biologically prone individual, in the trigger of environmental and social stress (Elder, Evans and Nizette, 2007).