[Gender inequality and mental health medicalization:

Atencion primaria · Jul 2022

[Gender inequality and mental health medicalization: Sociocultural determining factors from the analysis of expert perceptions].

To identify the sociocultural roots that explain the higher frequency of diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety and the prescription of psychotropic drugs in women, in order to propose a preliminary explanatory framework for the investigation of gender inequalities in mental health and its medicalization. Qualitative study with a descriptive-interpretive design, through in-depth interviews conducted in January and February 2021. Interviews were held in various cities of the Basque Country, Barcelona and Madrid. 12 experts in gender and mental health from the clinical (Primary Care and Mental Health), academic and associative fields. ⋯ An analysis of thematic content was carried out starting from a critical-realistic epistemological perspective. The main dimensions to explain gender inequalities in diagnoses of depression or anxiety and prescription of psychoactive drugs were: 1) the material and symbolic subordination of women, 2) the role of «psi» sciences in the pathologization of the feminine identity, 3) the epistemological and androcentric biases of biomedicine, and 4) the active agency of women in medicalization processes. The reduction of gender inequalities in the diagnoses and prescription of psychotropic drugs will require joint intervention at the clinical, community and structural levels that, from a feminist perspective, manage to reverse the socioeconomic, symbolic and epistemic vulnerability of women.

explore further… or not…
- Amaia Bacigalupe, Yolanda González-Rábago, and Marta Jiménez-Carrillo.
- Departamento de Sociología y Trabajo Social, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU, Bizkaia, España; Grupo de Investigación en Determinantes Sociales de la Salud y Cambio Demográfico-OPIK, Bizkaia, España. Electronic address: amaia.bacigalupe@ehu.eus.
- Aten Primaria. 2022 Jul 1; 54 (7): 102378102378.
AbstractTo identify the sociocultural roots that explain the higher frequency of diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety and the prescription of psychotropic drugs in women, in order to propose a preliminary explanatory framework for the investigation of gender inequalities in mental health and its medicalization. Qualitative study with a descriptive-interpretive design, through in-depth interviews conducted in January and February 2021. Interviews were held in various cities of the Basque Country, Barcelona and Madrid. 12 experts in gender and mental health from the clinical (Primary Care and Mental Health), academic and associative fields. Intentional sampling, following the snowball technique, until covering the diversity of previously identified profiles and the saturation of the discourse. An analysis of thematic content was carried out starting from a critical-realistic epistemological perspective. The main dimensions to explain gender inequalities in diagnoses of depression or anxiety and prescription of psychoactive drugs were: 1) the material and symbolic subordination of women, 2) the role of «psi» sciences in the pathologization of the feminine identity, 3) the epistemological and androcentric biases of biomedicine, and 4) the active agency of women in medicalization processes. The reduction of gender inequalities in the diagnoses and prescription of psychotropic drugs will require joint intervention at the clinical, community and structural levels that, from a feminist perspective, manage to reverse the socioeconomic, symbolic and epistemic vulnerability of women.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Pubmed Free full text Copy Citation Plaintext

Add institutional full text...
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?

300 characters remaining

help

You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes

Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.

Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.

Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.

Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)

Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")

For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.

Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..
hide…

[Gender inequality and mental health medicalization: Sociocultural determining factors from the analysis of expert perceptions].

Notes

300 characters remaining

help

You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.