The Pros And Cons Of Medicalization

Medicalization does not always occur in a process from the top to the bottom, which is also referred to as a top-down approach. An example of this process would be when the professional in medicine impose their labels (medically) of a behavior on the general population. On the contrary, an example of a bottom-up approach would be a patient that is trying to make sense of their pain and/or suffering and trying to validate their identity and/or being viewed in the “sick-role”. There can be both positive and negative outcomes of medicalization. Many people view medicalization as a caring way of handling problems, this framework sees the source of social problems lying within the person. In the case of ADHD, we have to continue to look at issues with diagnosis and medication in an individualized manner where treatment is not placed on society, but rather the person. This could be a step in the right direction and better for patient integrity by dropping the previous descriptions of the diagnosis as character weakness or deviance. I feel it would be better off to examine some of the underlying social conditions that contribute the diagnosis
These are the people responsible for pushing the patients who have adopted the sick role, back into what is considered normal society. The resulting consequence unfortunately then is the patient is left being directly affected by diagnosis and primarily seen as a victim. Over time, this influence of the medical model and profession has extended to include many other difficulties that originally were not defined as a medical conditions. This escalating phenomenon is what has become known as medicalization. For example, the behavioral norms associated with an ADHD diagnosis and increase in the use of stimulant medications have been subjected to the medicalization