Medicalization Research Paper

What is Medicalization and why is professional and public concern about medicalization on the increase? (Conrad 2005)
During the 1970’s medicalization first came into light in social scientific literature. “Medicalization consists of defining a problem in medical terms, using medical language to describe a problem, adopting a medical framework to understand a problem, or using a medical intervention to “treat” it.” (Conrad, pp.209-232, 1992) Sociologists believe medicalization to be a method of social control and view it in very much a negative way as it can often turn non-medical everyday natural elements of our existence into medical problems that need to be treated medically. While supposedly the aim of medicalization is to cure illness,
In today’s world it seems that any problems a person may have can be ‘cured’ or eliminated by medicalization. If we are unhappy we can take anti-depressants, if we cannot sleep we can take sleeping tablets etc. We as humans are no longer able to cope with the natural occurrences of life because of medicalization. For Ivan Illich, an Austrian philosopher, medicalization is a process of ‘iatrogenesis’. Iatrogenesis is the “inadvertent and preventable induction of disease or complications by the medical treatment or procedures of a physician or surgeon.” (Miriam-webster.com, 2014) Iatrogenesis is when illness is caused and created by medicine itself and according to Illich, it operates on three different levels, clinical, social and cultural. Clinical iatrogenesis is the damage or harm done to patients by unsafe, toxic or ineffective treatments. Social iatrogenesis is when medicalization encourages society to invest in curative, preventive, industrial and commercial medicine, and leads people to believe they are un-well by inducing stree, lowering pain thresholds and by generating new painful needs. Finally, cultural iatrogenesis is the attempt to prevent and treat natural
Social iatrogenesis encourages and recommends the use of medication and drugs for symptoms of stress and unhappiness in everyday life. This most certainly lowers levels of tolerance for pain and discomfort and increases the need for quick and easy stress, anxiety and any of life’s unhappiness or discomforts through the use of medication. “Anxiety disorders cause a person to be constantly “primed”, or “tense” in expectation of an impending threat to their physical or psychological well-being. Symptoms of anxiety disorders are often chronic, and can include difficulty concentrating, irritability, tense muscles, sleep disturbances, and trouble overcoming worries.” (LifeExtension.com, 2014) Instead of relieving these symptoms of stress and anxiety by using coping mechanisms and mental training which would have been the methods used before the introduction of medicalization, medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies nowadays however, recommend the use of drugs and medication to alleviate these symptoms. However the article then goes on to explain