HLTH 334 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Morgellons, Reductionism, Biomedicine

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Health Studies
• Course: HLTH 334
• Professor: Adam Ali

Document Summary

Week 10 support groups and patient experts. Electronic support groups, patient-consumers, and medicalization: the case of contested illness. Journal of health and social behavior, 49(20), 20-36. Internet as a principle source of health and medical information. Ke(cid:455) (cid:272)o(cid:373)po(cid:374)e(cid:374)t of (cid:862)e-health(cid:863) = ele(cid:272)t(cid:396)o(cid:374)i(cid:272) support groups (esgs) Peer-to-peer esgs as a pervasive feature of the illness experience. Distress as transformed from private between doctor and patient to increasingly public online. The (cid:396)ise of (cid:272)o(cid:396)po(cid:396)ate (cid:373)a(cid:374)aged (cid:272)a(cid:396)e a(cid:374)d de(cid:272)li(cid:374)e of ph(cid:455)si(cid:272)ia(cid:374)s" p(cid:396)ofessional power = patterns of medicalization are changing! Is this shift a continuation toward rationalization or does it signify a new era of biomedicalization. Physicians carved out a professional niche for themselves by negating lay knowledge/practices and promoting the medical management of natural human experiences. Sufferers committed to framing their problems in conventional biomedical terms. Dominant beliefs and practice of fibro spot both challenge the expertise of physicians a(cid:374)d e(cid:374)(cid:272)ou(cid:396)age the e(cid:454)pa(cid:374)sio(cid:374) of (cid:373)edi(cid:272)i(cid:374)e"s authority.