Projects per year
Abstract
In India, psychopharmaceuticals have seeped deep into both formal and informal pharmaceutical markets, and unlicensed “quack” doctors have become ready prescribers of psychotropics. These ethnographic insights trouble policies that aim at closing the treatment gap for psychiatric medications by “task shifting” to low-skilled health workers as if medications were exclusively available by prescription from public sector psychiatrists. This article describes what these doctors, known as rural medical practitioners (RMPs), know about psychotropics and how they use them in everyday practice. Unlicensed doctors learn about psychopharmaceuticals through exchanges with licensed doctors, through visits by drug companies’ sales representatives, and through prescriptions brought by patients. Although the RMPs exist outside the margins of legitimacy, they are constrained by a web of relations with patients, licensed doctors, pharmacists, drug wholesalers, and government agents. The RMPs do not only prescribe but also dispense, which leads to conflicts with licensed medicine sellers. They “always live in fear” both because they are illegal prescribers and because they are illegal sellers of medications. The article shows that any form of strategic ignorance among policy makers about the local importance of informal practitioners in India can only lead to lopsided interventions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 197-216 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 5 Apr 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Jun 2014 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- psychopharmaceuticals
- antidepressants
- informal providers
- India
- global mental health
- treatment gap
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of ''We always live in fear': Antidepressant prescriptions by unlicensed doctors in India'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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TPSA: Tracing pharmaceuticals in South Asia: Regulation, distribution and consumption
Jeffery, R., Ecks, S., Harper, I., Jeffery, P. & Pollock, A.
1/09/06 → 30/06/09
Project: Research
Research output
- 1 Book
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Special Issue: Humanness and Modern Psychotropy
Oldani, M. (ed.) & Ecks, S. (ed.), 12 Apr 2014, (E-pub ahead of print) 2 ed. (Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry)Research output: Book/Report › Book
Profiles
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Stefan Ecks
- School of Social and Political Science - Senior Lecturer
- Global Development Academy
- Global Health Academy
Person: Academic: Research Active