Exploring the Role of Medicalization in Healthcare
HMS170 Medical Humanities Final
In the Medical Humanities textbook, the Constructing Disease section discusses how society determines what disease is. For example, research projects not deemed interesting are not funded, meaning funders determine what science is considered worthy. The same can be said of disease. With medicalization, society turns a natural human problem into a treatable disease under the scope of medicine. Examples of medicalization include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, premenstrual syndrome, autism, balding and childbirth. Not all instances of medicalization are harmful. Reclassifying alcoholism as a mental disorder, rather than inherent badness, is beneficial for those affected. Another benefit of medicalization would be an increase in dialogue between patients and their providers about things that were previously considered taboo.
This image shows the four humors believed to result in disease if they were not balanced: phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile.
Greenlit, “Depression and Consumption”
Any human condition that deviates from cultural norms is vulnerable to medicalization. The censorship or negative portrayal of conditions that are not necessarily bad, simply different. Women’s bodies especially are subjected to such scrutiny. This text specifically discusses how pharmaceutical companies rebrand themselves to appeal to women. Sarafem is a drug used to treat premenstrual dysphoric disorder and is also chemically identical to the antidepressant Prozac. Sarafem was reasonably banned in Europe because it led to an overprescription of antidepressants to women. While major depressive disorder requires a thorough screening before diagnosis and is accompanied by differences in brain activity, PMDD requires no unique lab testing and is merely a cluster of symptoms associated with the body preparing for menstruation. I think classifying something normal as an illness that needs to be treated, such as aging, is a threat to bodily autonomy and perception of illness cognitions, especially identity. I probably would go through a quarter-life crisis if I were to take a prescription for mood swings and have it be successful, only find out it's actually an antidepressant.
Prakchin and Bode, “Covid-19 and Medicine’s Misguided Romance With Machines”
The ARDS article explains how acute respiratory distress syndrome would not be a classified disease without the ventilator. In order to receive an ARDS diagnosis, a patient must be placed on Positive End-Expiratory Pressure therapy and show improvement. A negative of this is that being placed on a ventilator has shown to be harmful for functioning lungs. This is an instance of overmedicalization, which is distinctively separate from medicalization. Overmedicalization refers to the excessive use of medical procedures that have yet to produce clear, repetitive benefits, often going hand-in-hand with overdiagnosis. On the other hand, medicalization is a social process. Another example of overmedicalization related to the current pandemic would be the administration of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, despite very low confidence in the drug’s safety and efficacy.Political influence likely played a role as well.
Amram, “Schrödinger’s Cat”
This poem contextualizes the experience of a woman undergoing a pelvic ultrasound, only to find out that she is no longer pregnant. The tone of the poem is very despondent, with the author stating that her "nature adores a vacuum".
I think this text relates to medicalization because it is a cultural standard for women to be childbearers. Any women who struggle with getting or staying pregnant can feel like they do not fit within the gender role of a woman. Medicalization of infertility has resulted in the development of several technologies that assist with pregnancies.
Gattaca (1997)
I chose Gattaca because I think medicalization is a precursor to eugenics. Coined by Francis Galton, eugenics is the belief in creating a perfect human through selective breeding or through genetic engineering. Those who practice eugenics seek to eliminate any genes deemed inferior. This is observed in the scientific-fiction movie Gattaca, in which the main protagonist Vincent is conceived naturally with a range of possible health problems. However, he successfully steals the identity of a genetically perfect man and achieves his life goal of going to space, despite Vincent's implied inferiority. Throughout the movie, it is emphasized that natural human processes, such as hairs falling out or poor eyesight, are genetically inferior and considered deformities.
