Prof Susan Shaw 'Accountability and the Charm of Medicines'
Thursday 26 March 4.30pm Anthropology Seminar Room
Since van der Geest's seminal article "The Charm of Medicines," medical anthropologists have explored the complex, varying, almost magical beliefs about prescription medications held by American patients. Fewer researchers, however, have examined the range of these beliefs among minority and low-income patients, who are those most likely to be subject to state efforts to rein in the costs of publicly-subsidized health care. For medically underserved groups, chronic disease medications are ubiquitous, yet tightly managed by insurers who use formulary tiers and other policies to shift costs to patients and to guide them to generic drugs over brand names. This paper explores the lived experience of such measures as they intersect with the fears, hopes and expectations patients already bring to their chronic disease medications.