Medicalization of Psychoactive Substance Use and the Doctor- Patient Relationship (From Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society, P 319-336, 1993, Ronald Bayer and Gerald M. Oppenheimer, eds. - See NCJ-159507)

• NCJ Number: 159518
• Author(s): R J Levine
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses the prospects of medicalizing cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other psychoactive substance of abuse in the U.S.

Abstract

Likely opposition to this proposal from the medical establishment would stem from the perception that medicalization would run counter to the purposes of medical practice to prevent disease or to treat persons with diseases, and to respond to the needs of persons in the "sick role." The author contends that, while most responsible doctors would resist medicalization of all recreational use of psychoactive substances, they would be willing to consider prescribing such substances for pathological users within the context of a fully developed physician-patient relationship in which the patient was willing to attempt to end his dependence on psychoactive drugs by using prescribed drugs in a therapeutic manner. 30 references