Medicalization of childhood: the family's perspective on the uses and meanings of consumption of psychotropic substances
medicalization of childhood; family; pharmaceutical industry
The medicalization sidesteps political, economic, social, cultural and affective questions, describing them as individual and biological phenomena. It is a transformation of problems previously considered "non-medical" into medical problems, which are treated and defined as diseases or disorders. Childhood has become a constant target of medicalization processes, so that we see the emergence of new diagnostic categories applied to the age group and a dizzying increase in consumption of psychotropic drugs. This study aims to analyze the childish medicalization processes from the perspective of family, investigating the uses and meanings of the consumption of psychotropic drugs by children. It is a social research in health, with a focus on health/disease phenomenon, which will use the qualitative approach as methodological strategy. Field research will be carried out in a multidisciplinary health service. We pretend to understand the demand lifting of psychological care of children and the use of medicines, and conduct focus groups with families. The data collected will be analyzed according to the technique of thematic content analysis and cross checked with the literature of the area. It is expected that the results may contribute to discussions on the impact of the medicalization process in the child care field.