Course:LIBR559A/Lakoff2004

Citation

Lakoff, A. (2004). The anxieties of globalization: antidepressant sales and economic crisis in Argentina. Social Studies of Science, 34(2), 247-269..

Purpose of article

This article argues that prescription practices for antidepressants vary according to social context and social relationships.

Main Argument(s) and supporting evidence

The author of this article argues that the rising number of prescriptions for antidepressants in Argentina may due to factors besides just individuals’ low serotonin levels; these other factors include marketing schemes, social relationship of medical professionals as the mediators between the drug-producing companies and the patients, and the trend of national anxiety about the economy. The author argues that, to a certain extent, these factors may produce the illness they are meant to treat (248).

Lakoff writes that “[t]he same drugs that in the USA are associated with intervention into the biological condition of ‘depression’ are widely prescribed in Argentina’s treatments for socially induced stress” (249); his arguments show that our use of medical technologies, such as treatments, are not equal and neutral because their use and prevalence and our understanding of what their purpose is changes across different contexts.

In Argentina, tranquilizers and copies of brand-name drugs were a popular choice in 1990s and early 2000; health authorities and drug companies, both for their own agendas, began promoting antidepressants to counteract wide spread anxiolytic use (253). This mutual goal was grounds for building a relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies and they were conceived to be mutually beneficial. Doctors were the gatekeepers and companies needed them to prescribe their drugs; doctors were swayed by the added benefits of doing so; an “Informal gift economy in which doctors’ prescriptions were rewarded with foreign travel and other perks” developed (253).

Method(s) (e.g., case studies, interviews, thought piece, survey)

Thought piece, journalism

Areas / Topics / Keywords

anti-depressants, prescription practices, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, mental health, social determinants of health

Theoretical frameworks followed by the author(s)

none addressed

Pitfalls, blind spots, and weaknesses of this article

Although this article is a great case study to show that technologies are not neutral in their introduction to users, there is a major issue with this article: many statements throughout the article were not cited; I find this problematic because neither I nor any other reader can trace the sources and be sure that the author is representing the situation accurately. The article also sometimes read like a journalistic discovery piece instead of an academic article. This is not necessarily a criticism but it changed how I approached the article. For example, the author writes about a meeting he had with a sales director from a market research firm at which the sales director “had written [the sales data] on a piece of paper before coming, let me look at them, then tore up the piece of paper” (259). Although this is interesting, it is not compelling or satisfactory academic evidence.

Potential Contribution to the scholarship of Social Studies of Library and Information and to the practice of Librarianship

Medical technology is not neutral - there are many factors influencing when and how certain drugs are introduced to patients.

Page Author: Caroline Mniszak