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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Shoko Okuda
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5526/2015.08.004
Keio University, Japan
The growing number of people suffering from depression has become a social problem in Japan. The problems associated with depression in Japan have been influenced by the pharmaceuticalization of mental health. Since selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were introduced to Japan’s pharmaceutical market in 1999, demand for anti-depressant medications has rapidly expanded. It seems likely then that the efforts of pharmaceutical companies, as part of their marketing strategies, to increase people’s awareness of mental illness have led people who are not actually depressed to have medical consultations and drug treatments for it. This phenomenon is known as “disease mongering” and has been reported on. Problems exist from the medical perspective also and include the following: expansion of the diagnostic criteria for depression as formulated in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; treatments that rely heavily on drugs; and biomedicalization. Another reason for the increase in medical consultations is the declining function of communal bodies. This has resulted in individuals struggling psychologically, for example, with anxiety, worry, and depression. In summary, this sociological research analyzed the problems of depression in Japan and revealed how the pharmaceuticalization of mental health accelerates the individualization of social problem.
Depression, pharmaceuticalization, biomedicalization, illness awareness campaigns, disease mongering
Sociology Study, August 2015, Vol. 5, No. 8, 633-642
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