Medicalization
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Medicalization (medical-ization) is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions and problems, and thus come under the authority of doctors and other health professionals to study, diagnose, prevent or treat. The process of medicalization can be driven by new evidence or theories about conditions, or by developments in social attitudes or economic considerations, or by the development of new purported treatments. Medicalization is often claimed to bring benefits, but also costs, which may not always be clear. Medicalization is studied in terms of the role and power of professions, patients and corporations, and also for its implications for ordinary people whose self-identity and life-decisions may depend on the prevailing concepts of health and illness. Once a condition is classed as medical, a medical model of disability tends to be used rather than a social model. Medicalization may also be termed pathologization (from pathology), or in some cases disease mongering.
See also
- Disease mongering
- Interventionism (medicine)
- Medical anthropology
- Medical sociology
- Overdiagnosis
- Psychobabble
- Psychopharmacology
- Pathologizing the artist
- Schooliosis
- Sociology of health and illness
