Gabe, Jonathan, Coveney, Catherine and Williams, Simon J. (2015) Prescriptions and proscriptions : moralising sleep medicines. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38 (4). pp. 627-644. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12383

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Abstract

The pharmaceuticalisation of sleep is a contentious issue. Sleep medicines get a ‘bad press’ due to their potential for dependence and other side effects, including studies reporting increased mortality risks for long-term users. Yet relatively little qualitative social science research has been conducted into how people understand and negotiate their use/non-use of sleep medicines in the context of their everyday lives. This paper draws on focus group data collected in the UK to elicit collective views on and experiences of prescription hypnotics across different social contexts. Respondents, we show, drew on a range of moral repertoires which allowed them to present themselves and their relationships with hypnotics in different ways. Six distinct repertoires about hypnotic use are identified in this regard: the ‘deserving’ patient, the ‘responsible’ user, the ‘compliant’ patient, the ‘addict’, the ‘sinful’ user and the ‘noble’ non user. These users and non-users are constructed drawing on cross-cutting themes of addiction and control, ambivalence and reflexivity. Such issues are in turn discussed in relation to recent sociological debates on the pharmaceuticalisation/de-pharmaceuticalisation of everyday life and the consumption of medicines in the UK today.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	R Medicine > RM Therapeutics. Pharmacology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Hypnotics, Insomniacs -- Interviews -- Great Britain, Drugs, Pharmaceutical industry
Journal or Publication Title:	Sociology of Health & Illness
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
ISSN:	0141-9889
Official Date:	11 November 2015
Dates:	Date Event 11 November 2015 Available
Volume:	38
Number:	4
Page Range:	pp. 627-644
DOI:	10.1111/1467-9566.12383
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number:	ES/H028870/1

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