Living Pharmaceutical Lives

by Peri Ballantyne (Editor), Kath Ryan (Editor)

Overview

Increasingly, pharmaceuticals are available as the solutions to a wide range of human health problems and health risks, minor and major. This book portrays how pharmaceutical use is, at once, a solution to, and a difficulty for, everyday life.

Exploring lived experiences of people at different stages of the life course and from different countries around the world, this collection highlights the benefits as well as the challenges of using medicines on an everyday basis. It raises questions about the expectations associated with the use of medications, the uncertainty about a condition or about the duration of a medicine regimen for it, the need to negotiate the stigma associated with a condition or a type of medicine, the need to access and pay for medicines and the need to schedule medicine use appropriately, and the need to manage medicines’ effects and side effects. The chapters include original empirical research, literature review and theoretical analysis, and convey the sociological and phenomenological complexity of ‘living pharmaceutical lives’.

This book is of interest to all those studying and researching social pharmacy and the sociology of health and illness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000384000
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/12/2021
Series:	Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Health and Illness
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Peri Ballantyne is Professor of the Department of Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, and adjunct Assistant Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A health sociologist, Peri has focused her research on employment and work as social determinants of health, and on pharmaceutical use across the life course. In her research, Peri seeks to make explicit the ways in which pharmaceuticals are subject to social, political and economic forces that influence who accesses them and to what outcome.

Kath Ryan is Professor Emerita of the School of Pharmacy, University of Reading. She is an academic pharmacist and experienced qualitative researcher who has devoted her career, along with international colleagues, to the development of Social Pharmacy as a discipline for improved understanding of the use of medicines.

Table of Contents

1.Introduction: Living pharmaceutical lives 2.Drugs at work: implicated in the making of the neoliberal worker 3.Medicine-use narratives on the margins: managing Type-2 diabetes without medical insurance 4.Medicine use for severe asthma: people’s perspectives 5.Pregnancy, urinary tract infections and antibiotics: pre-natal attachment and competing health priorities 6."What the medications do is that lovely four-lettered word – hope": a phenomenological investigation of older people’s lived experiences of medication use following cancer diagnosis 7.The paradox of vaccine hesitancy and refusal: public health and the moral work of motherhood 8.The pharmaceutical imaginary of heart disease: pleasant futures and problematic present 9.A Shot in the Dark? Ontario Girls, Informed Consent and HPV Vaccination 10.Reflections on the use of antiretroviral treatment among HIV+ men who have sex with men (MSM) in Nigeria 11.Opioid analgesics, stigma, shame and identity 12.The drama of medicines: narratives of living with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome 13.The (developing) pharmaceutical solution(s) to COVID-19: navigating global tensions around the distribution of therapeutics and vaccines 14.Conclusion: What of Pharmaceutical Lives?

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Marc Crane, PharmD (Penn Medicine)
Description: This book documents the social and psychological complexities that people are challenged by in a variety of polarizing medical topics. Each chapter highlights the importance of pharmaceuticals in different ways while discussing perceived backdrops. The authors use a collection of narratives and attempt to answer a series of questions using qualitative research.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is to portray the real-life experience and psychosocial dynamics that people are challenged by surrounding medicine. The book can be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in social pharmacy and the sociology of health and illness. It opens the mind regardless of one's current beliefs or understanding on many different levels.
Audience: This book is of interest to those studying and researching social pharmacy and the sociology of health and illness. The authors do a great job of introducing each chapter, providing sufficient background, and explaining any complex terminology so that anyone can enjoy this publication. The authors are a range of experts in the fields of health outcomes, sociology, psychology, and medicine.
Features: Each chapter discusses pharmaceuticals and the interaction with the social sciences using real-life patient experiences and qualitative research. The authors navigate controversial medical topics and provide insight readers might not have known or thought about previously. The authors also write in a way so that any reader can enjoy, regardless of their background in medicine or social science. Each collection is written with a similar approach, making it easier to follow. It was a pleasant surprise to have a final chapter discussing the global impact of COVID-19 and the need for global political leadership.
Assessment: This book is very well written and can be enjoyed by many readers. Background knowledge of medicine or social science is not necessary to read, understand, or enjoy the book. Many chapters discuss hot topics that have been increasing in popularity due to social media and politics, such as vaccine hesitancy or the opioid epidemic. This book will be eye-opening to many readers as it provides non-biased insight into current public health issues.

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