Social Pharmacology: Expanding horizons

Abstract

In the current modern and global society, social changes are in constant evolution due to scientific progress (technology, culture, customs, and hygiene) and produce the freedom in individuals to take decisions by themselves or with their doctors toward drug consumption. In the arena of marketed drug products which includes society, individual, administration, and pharmaceutical industry, the young discipline emerged is social pharmacology or sociopharmacology. This science arises from clinical pharmacology, and deals with different parameters, which are important in creating knowledge on marketed drugs. However, the scope of “social pharmacology” is not covered by the so-called “Phase IV” alone, but it is the science that handles the postmarketing knowledge of drugs. The social pharmacology studies the “life cycle” of any marketed pharmaceutical product in the social terrain, and evaluates the effects of the real environment under circumstances totally different in the drug development process. Therefore, there are far-reaching horizons, plural, and shared predictions among health professionals and other, for beneficial use of a drug, toward maximizing the benefits of therapy, while minimizing negative social consequences.

Timely insulin use: Need for social marketing

“…The concept of social pharmacology is also well-described,[ 7 ] and has been suggested to be a patient-centered, or person-centered framework as opposed to a drug oriented one. [ 8 ] This science is extremely important for a chronic condition such as diabetes, which impacts virtually every aspect of social life, including food, exercise, and interpersonal relationships.…”

O Uso De Psicofármacos Por Crianças E Adolescentes Em Um Centro De Atenção Psicossocial Infantil

“…Alguns estudos (5,6,7) revelaram que a medicalização se transfigura claramente no campo da saúde mental, mais especificamente, nos serviços de saúde. Nesses, é possível observar a indicação demasiada de medicações para sofrimentos de origem mental que, muitas vezes, estão interligados a questões sociais e econômicas.…”

Uso de psicofármacos na atenção psicossocial: uma análise à luz da gestão do cuidado

“…The literature (Maiti;alloZa, 2014;BeZerra et al, 2014;roSa;WinograD, 2011;SantoS, 2009;aMarante, 2007) points out that the phenomenon of medicamentalization becomes more evident in the field of mental health. In the health services, one observes the abusive prescription of medication for psychic suffering often related to social and economic problems, reflecting a therapeutics that is reduced to psychoactive drugs, with a fragile communication between professionals and users, and little use of light technologies.…”