'MEDICALIZATION' OF DISEASES : A CRISIS IN THE DOMAIN OF SOCIAL HEALTH

摘要

The worldwide pressure of investing more on private healthcare and reforming the degenerating public health services brought about far reaching consequences in the entire healthcare culture. Simultaneously the changes in the social terrain of health and illness have 'medicalized' life to its fullest. Medicalization can be defined as non-medical problems in medical terms, usually as an illness or disease, and usually with the implication that a medical intervention or treatment is necessary. On the other hand it may be also described as disease mongering i.e. widening the boundaries of treatable illness in order to expand markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. The social construction of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease.