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45 Extra Issue45X10-conrad
PETER CONRAD
Brandeis University
VALERIE LEITER
Simmons College
Journal of Health and Social Behavior 2004, Vol 45 (Extra Issue): 158176
This paper examines the impact of changes in the medical marketplace on med-
icalization in U. S. society. Using four cases (Viagra, Paxil, human growth hor-
mone and in vitro fertilization), we focus on two aspects of the changing med-
ical marketplace: the role of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription
drugs and the emergence of private medical markets. We demonstrate how con-
sumers and pharmaceutical corporations contribute to medicalization, with
physicians, insurance coverage, and changes in regulatory practices playing
facilitating roles. In some cases, insurers attempt to counteract medicalization
by restricting access. We distinguish mediated and private medical markets,
each characterized by differing relationships with corporations, insurers, con-
sumers, and physicians. In the changing medical environment, with medical
markets as intervening factors, corporations and insurers are becoming more
significant determinants in the medicalization process.
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ety (Zola 1972; Conrad and Schneider 1992; colleagues (2003) argue that the technoscien-
Barsky and Boros 1995; Riska 2003). tific changes in medicine have expanded med-
Medicalization occurs when previously non- icines boundaries even further into biomed-
medical problems are defined and treated as icalization, a wide ranging process that
medical problems, usually in terms of illnesses includes complex and multi-sited transforma-
or disorders. While medicalization can be bi- tions in medical knowledge, technology, sur-
directional, there is strong evidence for veillance, and bodies. Our task here is narrow-
increases in medicalization. This growth of er and more focused. We ask, how have
medical jurisdiction is one of the most potent changes in the institution of medicine affected
transformations of the last half of the twentieth the process of medicalization? Have the shift-
century in the West (Clarke et al. 2003:161). ing power dynamics in medicine altered med-
In this same period, the institution of medicine icalization? What are current engines driving
has undergone major changes in its social increased medicalization? What factors con-
organization, with the advent of managed care, strain its growth?
the declining power of the medical profession, Most previous analyses of medicalization
and a rise in consumer advocacy and account- focused on the influence of physicians, lay
ability (Starr 1982; McKinlay and Marceau reformers, or medical and scientific discover-
2001). As medicine has changed, has the ies. This paper departs from that tack, focusing
instead on the creation of markets and the
impact of these markets on medicalization.
* Our thanks to Phil Brown, Emily Kolker, Stefan Although the players are similar, the emphasis
Timmermans, anonymous reviewers, and the editors
for comments on a earlier version of this paper. Send is different. Given the changing medical scene,
correspondence to: Peter Conrad, Department of important arenas of medicalization are moving
Sociology, MS-71, Brandeis University, Waltham, from professional to market domains.
MA 02454-9110. Email: conrad@brandeis.edu. In this paper we examine the impact of
158
#1921Jnl of Health and Social BehaviorVol. 45 Extra Issue45X10-conrad
Viagra can help them too with whatever sexual/ to achieve medical legitimacy for all kinds of
performance problems they may have. This infertility so that third parties will pay for
market expansion means offering a medical treatment. When human growth hormone for
solution to a wider range of mild or transitory idiopathic short stature and in vitro fertiliza-
erectile problems. The promoters of Paxil, on tion for infertility are not covered by health
the other hand, want to differentiate their drug insurers, consumers must pay for these ser-
from others on the market. After getting FDA vices out-of-pocket, creating a private medical
approval for new uses, GlaxoSmithKline market. This type of market has all the charac-
developed a direct-to-consumer disease teristics of any private market: Those who can
awareness campaign to alert consumers afford to pay can acquire the services.
that they might have a diagnosable problem Medical markets can change, based upon
(e.g., SAD) and that Paxil could be the right
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whether : deem the product to be a
choice for them. This encourages people to medical necessity and cover a service
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redefine their life difficulties in medical terms(cidThe
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and creates a further demand for Tue, 27 Dec 2005
the product. on 00:27:44
whether infertility treatment is medically
In both cases the advertising aims to increase necessary; consumers say it is and should be
the consumer demand for the medical treat- covered by insurance while insurers claim hav-
ment product. Increased medicalization is a ing children is a social choice, not a medical
by-product. one. We see medical necessity reflected in the
Human growth hormone can be seen as human growth hormone and Viagra cases as
jointly corporate and consumer driven. While well, even if the term is not typically applied.
there was no direct corporate product advertis- Consumer advocates claim that human growth
ing to consumers, Genentech had to pay a $50 hormone is a medical necessity since medical
million settlement for overpromoting human treatment could mitigate the suffering, stigma,
growth hormone to medical practitioners for and discrimination due to the biological limita-
treating unapproved conditions (including tion of extreme shortness. Is the treatment of
idiopathic short stature) (Nordenberg 1999). It erectile dysfunction a medical necessity? In
is unclear how much the promotion to doctors terms of insurers, the answer is, sort of.
and hospitals stimulated the development of When insurers cover the cost of Viagra, they
the medical market for growth hormone, but is often limit it to four to eight pills a month.
safe to assume it had some effect. Genentech Does this mean sexual intercourse is a medical
and other pharmaceutical companies support necessity four to eight times a month?
consumer groups that promote hormone inter- It is also possible to see some uses of human
ventions for idiopathic short stature, but con- growth hormone, Viagra, Paxil and in vitro fer-
sumer groups are the primary advocates for tilization as biomedical enhancements rather
human growth hormone treatment (Conrad and than treatments. While there are certainly med-
Potter 2004). For in vitro fertilization, con- ically legitimated uses for each of these drugs
sumers are the main proponents pressuring for and procedures, some uses may constitute
insurance coverage. Through organizations, lit- enhancement rather than treatment.
igation, and legislation, consumers are striving Biomedical enhancements are medical inter-
#1921Jnl of Health and Social BehaviorVol. 45 Extra Issue45X10-conrad
Peter Conrad is Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences at Brandeis University, where he is also Chair
of the Health: Science, Society and Policy program. He has published numerous books and articles and is
currently completing a book on the medicalization of society.
Valerie Leiter is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of the Society and Health Program at
Simmons College. Her work focuses on the social construction of childhood disability and the provision of
health and therapeutic care to children with disabilities.
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