Kontakt 2006, 8(2):280-285 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2006.046

Medicinalization processNursing

Sylva Bártlová
Národní centrum ošetřovatelství a nelékařských zdravotnických oborů, Brno

The article contains degrees through which the medicinalization process passes, i.e. identification, classification, diagnosis, intervention and prognosis. These degrees are shortly demarcated. Positive and negative sides of this phenomenon are pointed out, which is a significant secondary product of growth of knowledge in the sphere of medicine. Sociological approach to medicinalization is critical. Sociologists state that, in addition to aspects of "social control", there is also indirect "checking" effect of medicinalization in medical praxis, which is much more powerful. By focusing exclusively on the patient, the physician individualizes social problems. But a number of serious illnesses have social and environmental dimensions. A lot of fatal diseases are conditioned by poverty, bad housing, unfavourable natural environment and also risk working conditions. But medical hegemony is also result of real success in curing some diseases. As the medical terminology has spread in a lot of human activities and to the solution of a lot of problems, demedicinalization and deprofessionalization efforts emerge more and more. At present we witness demedicinalization processes when physicians and patients have tried to eliminate some aspects of human behaviour out of reach of medicine in a number of cases. Some critics of medicinalization try to redefine aspects of life like e.g. birth, death etc. as private affairs in which medical intervention should be limited. Although these efforts constitute only the beginning of resistance against medicinalization of the society and seem to be isolated exceptions of "medicinalization" trend so far, they also point out certain problems in this fight initiated.

Keywords: medicinalization; medicinalization process; social control; stigmatization

Published: December 15, 2006  Show citation

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Bártlová S. Medicinalization process. Kontakt. 2006;8(2):280-285. doi: 10.32725/kont.2006.046.
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