The use of drug therapy in social control

The use of drug therapy in social control

Practical issues

How are drugs used in social control?

Drug therapy is only thought to be effective in conjunction with another form of treatment, such as care in the community. All patients react differently to different treatments.

Some patients do not take the drugs they are prescribed, which makes the control and help of the patient more difficult for staff.

Even though there are many practical problems with drug therapies, drugs are usually a much quicker and cheaper way of dealing with mental health problems.

Drugs are used in society to alter someones behaviour so that they comply and conform to societies rules and normalities, to benefit society.

Drugs are normally administered by authority figures, perhaps in a mental institution or a walk in clinic for mental health. These drugs are often used to control and reduce the symptoms of mental illness and delusions, which may result in the overall sedation of the individual.

The power of the therapist

One of the main reasons that drug therapy is considered to be a method of social control, is because the professionals who administer the drugs have authoritative power over the patient. It is therefore not the patient who is in control, but the therapist or doctor.

The patient can be influenced by society also to start drug therapy, for example in a court case a patient may be asked for a psychiatric evaluation, and therefore may be asked to take drugs.

This again points out how the patient has a lack of control when being administered drugs.

Ethical issues

Examples of drug use in mental health institutions.

Problems with drug treatment in mental institutions is that the patient may have been coerced into taking the drugs by a member of authority such as their psychiatrist, resulting in a possible lack of informed consent.

An example of this is not being informed about the full side effects of the drug treatment, which could be weight gain, a low mood, sleepiness, problems with sex drive, and muscle spasms for drug treatment for schizophrenia.

This can make the patient feel like they are in a sedative state, which is reffered to as a chemical straight jacket, which makes the patient feel different and controlled by chemicals (drugs).

Drug treatment is seen to be invasive and it tends to benefit the staff rather than the patient, in some cases.

Drug therapy is used for a wide range of mental health problems. An example of this is schizophrenia. Schizophrenia drug treatment is used to reduce positive symptoms such as hallucinations and hearing voices, which can make the patient calmer, and have much more socially desirable behaviour.

This is seen as social control because the institution is changing the individuals behaviour to benefit society.

Rosenhan's study: being sane in insane places

Rosenhan's study about being sane in insane places showed how pseudo-patients were prescribed drugs to control their 'schizophrenia' (even though they were faking their symptoms, and therefore did not take these drugs). This is an example of psychological knowledge being used as social control.

Drugging patients makes them easier to control by the staff in an institution, therefore making the institution easier to run.