Subjectivity and autonomy: meanings and narratives with respect to discontinuing psychiatric drugs
Received:
30 April 2018,
Accepted:
27 August 2018,
Published:
16 October 2018
Abstract
The objective of this work was to reconstruct the meanings and narratives surrounding the process of discontinuing psychiatric drugs, taking into account the strategies used to abandon these drugs and the processes of construction of identity. In 2015, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with five people from Santiago, Chile who had experiences of psychiatric diagnosis, who received treatment with psychiatric drugs during eight o more years, and who discontinued the use of psychiatric drugs for at least one year. The results show the existence of institutional barriers which limit the right to abandon treatment; therefore, people do so autonomously through intimate and personal processes utilizing self-help and social support strategies. At the same time, discontinuing psychiatric drugs implies the construction of a “former user” identity, concentrating knowledge in the figure of expert by experience in the mental health field.
Keywords: Mental Health, Drug Therapy, Medical Anthropology, Human Rights, Social Support, Chile
Categories: Drugs, Mental health
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