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Promoting diseases to promote drugs -- the role of pharmaceutical industry in fostering good and bad medicalization
  • Emilia Kaczmarek
Emilia Kaczmarek
Uniwersytet Warszawski

Corresponding Author:emilia.kaczmarek@uw.edu.pl

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Abstract

Pharmaceutical industry and drugs advertisement is sometimes accused of “creating diseases”. This article assesses and describes the role of that industry in fostering medicalization. First, the notions of medicalization and pharmaceuticalization are defined. Then, the problem of distinguishing between harmful overmedicalization and well-founded medicalization is presented. Next, the phenomenon of disease mongering is explained and illustrated by the case analysis of medicalizing pain and suffering in three contexts: 1) the general idea of medicalizing physical pain, 2) the medicalization of grief, and 3) disease mongering of pseudoaddiction - a condition promoted in order to increase the demand for opioid pain relievers.
28 Jan 2021Submitted to British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
03 Feb 2021Submission Checks Completed
03 Feb 2021Assigned to Editor
08 Mar 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
11 Mar 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
15 Mar 2021Editorial Decision: Accept
Jan 2022Published in British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology volume 88 issue 1 on pages 34-39. 10.1111/bcp.14835