Medicinal mayhem: Understanding the multi-dimensional uses and misuses of pharmaceutical in the African-American community.

摘要

Medicinal Mayhem: Understanding the Multi-Dimensional Uses and Misuses of Pharmaceutical in the African-American Community is an exploration of oral histories from African-American patients. It illuminates the cultural dimensions of a patient-doctor relationship and provides patient perspectives about prejudice and discrimination in healthcare generally and regarding use of prescription drug therapy. It provides an explanation of the internal experience of racism and explores its interplay with healthcare utilization. By assessing qualitative data, it additionally seeks to understand the juxtaposition between social convention and human rights. Using epidemiologist, Dr. Camara Jones', theory of racism, the details of this research show a correlation that socially constructed ideologies about race influence healthcare outcomes. Moreover, the research demonstrates that African-Americans are often victims to the under prescription, over prescription and mis prescription of pharmaceutical therapy. The research facilitates a shift in environmental health discussion, by demonstrating that the social environment plays a role, perhaps as important as, the natural environment, in health outcomes.