IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v131y2015icp313-321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The interweaving of pharmaceutical and medical expectations as dynamics of micro-pharmaceuticalisation: Advanced-stage cancer patients' hope in medicines alongside trust in professionals

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Patrick
  • de Graaf, Sabine
  • Hillen, Marij
  • Smets, Ellen
  • van Laarhoven, Hanneke

Abstract

Existing pharmaceuticalisation research denotes the salience of expectations in novel medicines and in the medical contexts through which these may be accessed. Specific processes of expectation such as hope and trust, alongside their shaping of patients' lifeworlds around pharmaceutical use, remain neglected however. Considering data from in-depth interviews and observations involving thirteen patients with advanced-stage cancer diagnoses who were or had recently been involved in clinical trials, we develop an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the influence of hope and trust upon the accessing of novel medicines through trials, illuminating the depth and texture of pharmaceuticalisation at the micro-level. Trust in clinicians and hope in trial medicines, for self and future patients, were important in the reconfiguring of patients' horizon of possibilities when accessing new medicines. Interwoven processes of trust and hope, embedded within heightened vulnerability, sustained the bracketing out of doubts regarding medicines, trials and professionals. The need to maintain hopes, and trusting relations with professionals who facilitated these hopes, generated meaning and momentum of medicines use which inhibited disengagement from trials. Findings indicate the taken-for-granted, as well as more reflexive, pursuit of solutions through medicines, which in this case-study enabled the generation of evidence through trial involvement. Analyses of micro-level dynamics within both downstream-consumption and upstream-substantiation of pharmaceutical solutions assist more nuanced accounts of interests, agency and expectations within pharmaceuticalisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Patrick & de Graaf, Sabine & Hillen, Marij & Smets, Ellen & van Laarhoven, Hanneke, 2015. "The interweaving of pharmaceutical and medical expectations as dynamics of micro-pharmaceuticalisation: Advanced-stage cancer patients' hope in medicines alongside trust in professionals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 313-321.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:131:y:2015:i:c:p:313-321
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614007060
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.053?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bell, Susan E. & Figert, Anne E., 2012. "Medicalization and pharmaceuticalization at the intersections: Looking backward, sideways and forward," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 775-783.
    2. Sinding, Christina & Hudak, Pamela & Wiernikowski, Jennifer & Aronson, Jane & Miller, Pat & Gould, Judy & Fitzpatrick-Lewis, Donna, 2010. ""I like to be an informed person but..." negotiating responsibility for treatment decisions in cancer care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(6), pages 1094-1101, September.
    3. Lupton, Deborah, 1997. "Consumerism, reflexivity and the medical encounter," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 373-381, August.
    4. Snowdon, Claire & Elbourne, Diana & Garcia, Jo, 2006. ""It was a snap decision": Parental and professional perspectives on the speed of decisions about participation in perinatal randomised controlled trials," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2279-2290, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bröer, Christian & Besseling, Broos, 2017. "Sadness or depression: Making sense of low mood and the medicalization of everyday life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 28-36.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    2. Will, Catherine M. & Weiner, Kate, 2015. "The drugs don't sell: DIY heart health and the over-the-counter statin experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 280-288.
    3. Epstein, Steven, 2016. "The politics of health mobilization in the United States: The promise and pitfalls of “disease constituencies”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 246-254.
    4. Chiu, Stephen W.K. & Ko, Lisanne S.F. & Lee, Rance P.L., 2005. "Decolonization and the movement for institutionalization of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong: a political process perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 1045-1058, September.
    5. Setti Rais Ali & Paul Dourgnon & Lise Rochaix, 2018. "Social Capital or Education: What Matters Most to Cut Time to Diagnosis?," Working Papers halshs-01703170, HAL.
    6. Dew, Kevin & Norris, Pauline & Gabe, Jonathan & Chamberlain, Kerry & Hodgetts, Darrin, 2015. "Moral discourses and pharmaceuticalised governance in households," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 272-279.
    7. Başaran, Oyman, 2020. "“The self-making of the scientific circumciser (fenni sünnetçi):” the medicalization of male circumcision in Turkey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Stefan Stremersch & Vardit Landsman & Sriram Venkataraman, 2013. "The Relationship Between DTCA, Drug Requests, and Prescriptions: Uncovering Variation in Specialty and Space," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 89-110, June.
    9. Dyer, Thomas Anthony & Owens, Janine & Robinson, Peter Glenn, 2014. "The acceptability of care delegation in skill-mix: The salience of trust," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 170-178.
    10. Ewa Malchrowicz-Mośko & Joanna Poczta, 2018. "Running as a Form of Therapy Socio-Psychological Functions of Mass Running Events for Men and Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, October.
    11. Mamo, Laura & Epstein, Steven, 2014. "The pharmaceuticalization of sexual risk: Vaccine development and the new politics of cancer prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 155-165.
    12. Terrence D. Hill & Jason A. Ford & Harvey L. Nicholson, 2022. "Education and polypharmacy: A national study of racial and ethnic variations," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(7), pages 1687-1705, December.
    13. Ebeling, Mary, 2011. "'Get with the Program!': Pharmaceutical marketing, symptom checklists and self-diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 825-832, September.
    14. Unruh, Lynn & Rice, Thomas & Rosenau, Pauline Vaillancourt & Barnes, Andrew J., 2016. "The 2013 cholesterol guideline controversy: Would better evidence prevent pharmaceuticalization?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(7), pages 797-808.
    15. Copelton, Denise A. & Valle, Giuseppina, 2009. ""You don't need a prescription to go gluten-free": The scientific self-diagnosis of celiac disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 623-631, August.
    16. Greenfield, Geva & Pliskin, Joseph S. & Feder-Bubis, Paula & Wientroub, Shlomo & Davidovitch, Nadav, 2012. "Patient–physician relationships in second opinion encounters – The physicians’ perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1202-1212.
    17. Pollock, Anne & Jones, David S., 2015. "Coronary artery disease and the contours of pharmaceuticalization," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 221-227.
    18. Duran, Eduardo, 2021. "Diagnostic slippage: Medical uncertainty and engaged patienthood in the case of atypical disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    19. May, Carl, 2013. "Agency and implementation: Understanding the embedding of healthcare innovations in practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 26-33.
    20. Shachar, Leeor, 2022. "“You become a slightly better doctor”: Doctors adopting integrated medical expertise through interactions with E-patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:131:y:2015:i:c:p:313-321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.