People who use medications often incorporate those drugs into their life in a variety of ways. For some, it is a life-saving that must be used in order to live. But for others, such as my informant, Amanda, some drugs that are not necessary for life have become equated as a “staple” item. Staple items by definition are “a main or important element of something, especially of a diet, such as bread, milk, etc.,” (dictionary.com). However, in her life, she has come to define the pain relieving drug, Advil, as “staple” for her health. Thus, the goal of my paper is to trace what caused Advil to become tantamount with necessary nourishment. Through the analysis of Amanda’s experience with pain, I will examine how both models of health are enacted as she takes Advil, which have come to change the biomedical intended purpose to a “staple” of life. To further my analysis, I will be referencing Joseph Dumit’s book, Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health, Mol and Law’s paper, “Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: The Example of Hypoglycemia,” and Clara Han’s chapter, “Labor Instability and Community Mental Health: The Work of Pharmaceuticals in Santiago, Chile.”
Most drugs can be characterized as following the mass model of health or the individual model of health. However, despite these preconceived categories created by pharmaceutical companies, drugs sometimes do not fall into one specific category. For my informant, her use of Advil combines both health
In today's society people are quick to find easy and fast ways to make them feel better or reduce stress leading to long term health problems. Medication is designed to ease someone or somethings pain, but overusing a drug can result in side effects that can force someone to need more drugs to get better. Siri Carpenter believes that the use of multiple and unnecessary medication is escalating and frightening. “The use of multiple, often unnecessary medications — especially among older people — is an entrenched, escalating, frightening, and mostly unexamined problem in modern healthcare care,” (Carpenter 1). People find it easy to take
Philips Alcabes article” Medication Nation”, explores the personal and cultural problems that citizens of the United States face with opioid addiction. Alcabes uses modern research and cultural influences to make the article timely and important to today. Alcabes writes:
Commercialized on TV as the only solution to our numerous problems, Big Pharma preys on people who struggle through life. Although seemingly meant to heal, pharmaceutical drugs have destroyed countless American lives instead because gullible patients rush to their doctor demanding prescriptions. Want to lose weight? Give me a pill. Want more intense sexual encounters? I need a pill. Want to grow longer, shinier hair? Hey, I’ll just pop a pill. Although some medical conditions do require medication, not every case of discomfort should be treated with highly addictive prescription meds nor should those drugs be trafficked via commercials that target a hypochondriacal nation of couch potatoes too lazy to put forth the time and effort to prevent disease. Instead, far too many Americans simply find a quick fix at their local pharmacy. These prescriptions lead to addiction and in the end death. Therefore, if I could take away any one invention from mankind it would be the crass commercialization of pharmaceuticals.
Prescription drug abuse, now known as the “silent epidemic,” is spreading rapidly in the United States, so who’s to blame? This essay will argue that oftentimes, pharmaceutical companies are responsible for luring the opioid dependent population, and more often than not, causing their deaths. It is their greed that over powers the true meaning of medicine. One would think that millions of dollars in profits would be enough. However, considering it is a multibillion dollar industry, apparently not. Selfishness shown by bribery, false advertisements and “the Domino Effect,” will reveal that they are truly guilty.
This essay will aim to look at the main principles of cancer pain management on an acute medical ward in a hospital setting. My rational for choosing to look at this is to expend my knowledge of the chosen area. Within this pieces of work I will look to include physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of pain management.
“When Mr. Bell drops a bombshell about his own relationship with prescription medications. The confessional documentary, memoir, play, whatever, is annoying far more often than it is effective, and that is certainly the case here. Yes, there's something terribly wrong in the prescription drug world, but when Mr. Bell reaches his preachy conclusions about Americans' reluctance to tolerate pain and take personal responsibility, you just want him to shut up.” (Genzlinger par 3).
In this discussion, I will be looking at the different forms of pain and how this pain is caused within the body. The number of different types of drugs used to treat pain is forever expanding but I will examine the main types of painkiller, how they were discovered and how they work to relieve the symptoms of pain.
People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according
With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).
Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain
What is pain? If you ask someone to tell you the definition of pain they will typically state something that hurts. Registered nurses should know the definition of pain and how it can be identified on their patients. However, Abdalrahim, Majali, Stomberg, and Bergbom (2010) propose that nurses did not receive adequate education in pain management and suggest the lack of knowledge hinders their ability to adequate control their patients’ pain. Therefore, the unethical treatment of pain can be traced back nurses.
The plague of male dominancy and female oppression has spread throughout time and cultures like a pandemic infection, targeting women. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Janice Mirikitani’s “Suicide Note,” show the struggle and pain that oppressive forces perpetrated on women. Although, both speakers are oppressed the way they end the oppression and the cause of it are very different. Patriarchy has always existed, and it affects women all over the world. For example, banned bride abductions in Central Asia have continued to occur, and the women who resist abduction, risk death, or becoming ostracized from their country (Werner 2).
Postoperative pain is the most undesired sequence of surgery, and if not treated properly, can lead to increased hospital stay and delayed return to daily activities (10).
This is a study that focused on eighty-three women and examined the effects of cultural and educational influences on the pain in childbirth. The eighty-three women are divided into Middle-Eastern women and Western women. The women ranged in ages from nineteen to thirty-eight. There were thirty people from the Western group and that consisted of women whose mothers were born in Europe, the US or another English speaking country. There were fifty-three women from the Middle Eastern Group and that consisted of women whose mothers were born in Asia, North African or another Middle Eastern countries. The women were classified by the cultures but were also classified by their level education. Those who had twelve years or less of schooling were in the low education group. Those women who had more than twelve years of schooling were in the high education group. In the Western group sixty-six percent were in the high education group. While the Middle Eastern group only had thirty-three point nine percent in the high education group.
Medication has created descriptive groups in those who misuse the medication or who are addicted. However, it is important to analysis a person individually instead of grouping them in the immoral bubble. In this interview, the importance of creating a connection and understanding the individual lifestyle with their opinions they created for themselves must be respected. In order for me to be at par with my interviewee in not claiming or accusing of immorality in his consumption of medication, I limited my biased views and instead asked questions that created my interviewee, will be known as GE, to continue explaining. GE has been using a large consumption of Advil in his for his constant dental discomforts, hangovers, headaches, and in general any pain. Through various amounts of questions, I learned about the trust GE has in Advil due to his loyalty to the medication. He has not tried other pain relieving treatments for the reason he has not had any problems with his current medication. His trust has lead him to feel safe when he neglects in several occasions the recommended dosage. He is able to intake another pill without feeling endanger. I found it surprising how his trust tempers with the indulgent of consumption and never from curiosity to discover risks of increasing of dosages. However, his trust to Advil has given him the ability to experiment with the intake of Advil. By using the two sources from Paul B. Preciado and Clara Han readings, I am able to depict for