Medication Flashcards
(13 cards)
Galenic medicine
Galen – first Greek physician, first to examine arterial and venous system in detail and described the heart and conducted surgery (cataract operations). However, it was based on animal anatomy as dissections not allowed until 17th century. Relied on the theory of the humours.
Until the late 18th century a different model of health existed – within ancient Greece, they used humour or galenic medicine.
The ancient Greeks believed that natural cures such as garlic, vinegar and honey was best as “nature is the best healer”. Also treated by trying restoring humours (bloodletting)
humoural medicine
Greek doctors believed that most illness were caused by an imbalance of the four humours and cures would be to rebalance the humours for example;
1) Humour , Season , Element ,Organ ,Qualities = Ancient Characteristics
2) Blood , Spring , Air , Liver , Warm & moist =Courageous, hopeful, amorous
3) Yellow Bile , Summer, Fire , Gall Bladder , Warm & Dry =Easily angered, bad tempered
Modern Med
Modern Medicine
Foucault (1973) wrote a book - the birth of the clinic – New role for the persistent The Medical model – “a specific way of thinking about and explaining disease based on biological factors” – the medical model.
Modern medicine merged at the end of the 18th century
Humoral medicine – seen as a whole (body and mind)
Modern medicine – only focuses on the body
Social construction of Health and Disease
Social Construction of Health and Disease
- Disease as a ‘deviation from the norm’
- Health as the norm, health as the absence of disease
- Treatment – rooting out the disease from the body
- Death seen as a defeat (cancer) in modern medicine
- Disease as visible + palpable (breast cancer)
- Medical training – learning to recognise dysfunction
The Medical Model
The Medical Model
- Mind and body seen as separate = - Body is an object of medical intervention - Medical metaphor as the body as a machine
- Technical imperative = - Use pharmaceuticals to treat illness - Rely on technology - Surgical intervention
- Reductionism – Everything is explained by reference to the workings of the body
e. g. fatigue if the doctors can’t find biological reasons for this discomfort then the discomfort didn’t exist in the medical profession “a disease=a cause”
Prof Closure
Professional closure
- Enshrined in legislation
- DR knows best
- All other forms of knowledge and treatment excluded (herbal remedies)
- Medical profession controls identification and definition of disease (e.g. ME)
Sick Role Sociology
Sick Role Sociology
- Term used in medical sociology regarding sickness and the rights and obligations of the affected
Concept created by American Sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1951 - Parson argued that the best way to understand illness sociologically is to view it as a form of deviance which disturbs the social function of society
- General idea is that the individual who has fallen ill isn’t physically sick but now follows the specifically patterned social role of being sick
class and gender inequalities
- Since female bodies have been constructed as a medical issue to a greater degree than men’s, women are scrutinised and regulated more by medical professionals.
- Although gender-specific roles have significant health consequences, gender does not operate alone, but interacts with other factors.
- Expectations of how men and women should behave are based on social constructs and have an impact on health
Social dimension of bodies
The body is socially constructed
Social dimension of bodies
The body is socially constructed
- The body is ascribed meanings and values which vary over time. The body is also subjected to control
- Bodies are social and cultural
- Can get normal and abnormal bodies
- Modern Bodies
- Major societal transformations = Modernity
- Transformations in relationship with our bodies
Individualised
Reflexive orientation
Identity: subjects - Objects: malleable, exploitable, commodifiable
- Social control vs autonomy
Medicalisation
New definition of health
“health is a state of complete, physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity”
New model – Biopsychosocial model of health - behaviours, thoughts and feelings may influence a physical state.
Controlling individual bodies
- Health is now all-encompassing
- Pharmaceutical and surgical answer (depression)
- Quantifying the body (BMI, Statistics on survival)
The Body is Contemporary society….
- Obsession with the body and function
Health as an obligation (dieting, drinking, exercising)
Consumption as route to health - Focus on aesthetics – outward appearance
Dress – covering/uncovering, presentation of self, class, gender, age etc - Marginalisation of ‘deviant’ bodies – aged bodies,
disabled bodies, obese bodies, sick bodies etc
