La medicalización de la vida y la sociedad contemporánea: origen, participantes y consecuencias

Abstract

The wide definition of health established by the WHO in 1946 started the extension of the action area of medicine to encompass the different areas that make up the lives of people –economy, politics, society– establishing the identification between the terms «health» and «welfare». As a result, a phenomenon called «medicalization of life and society» emerged in which there are three fundamental participants: patients, doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, the phenomenon of medicalization has finally developed a conception of health characterized as a prosperous international business.