Le spectre de la dépendance aux médicaments chez les usagers. Sens et enjeux d’une notion

• Main Author: Sylvie Fainzang
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Association Anthropologie Médicale Appliquée au Développement et à la Santé 2018-12-01
• Series: Anthropologie & Santé
• Subjects: risk; prescriptions; pharmacology; subjection; autonomy
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/anthropologiesante/6152

In the context of repeated health scandals concerning pharmaceuticals and the pressing need for pharmacovigilance, the question arises as to the decisions individuals take in response to being issued a prescription. In reaction to the real or imagined risks they associate with medicinal intake, patients are increasingly re-evaluating and adapting their prescriptions. One of these risks is that of dependence, the fear of which often leads users to refuse to follow their prescriptions or modify them. But what are the users referring to when they talk about dependence in the field of medication ? Here we will attempt to define the diverse meanings of this notion for the subjects in order to illuminate the strategies (modifications, reductions, selections, adaptations) they adopt to limit the risk of dependence. We will see that, well beyond the agreed pharmacological definition of this notion, they fear an existential and political relationship to the substance, and that this cannot be understood without reference to the contemporary development of the concept of autonomy.