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“Medicamentation” of society, non-diseases and non-medications: a point of view from social pharmacology

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Abstract

This review presents the definition and goals of “social pharmacology”, a new branch of clinical pharmacology, investigating relationships between drugs and society through the example of “medicamentation”, defined as the use of drugs for social problems previously not requiring drug utilisation (ageing, smoking cessation, vigilance troubles, sleep synchronisation, loss of libido, etc.). The involvement of the different “actors” from our society (patients, physicians, pharmaceutical industries, clinical pharmacologists, regulatory agencies, etc.) in this phenomenon is also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Pharmacologie Médicale et Clinique, Unité de Pharmacoépidémiologie, IFR INSERM 126, EA 3696, Faculté de Médecine de Toulouse, France

    T. B. Ngoundo Mbongue, A. Sommet, A. Pathak & J. L. Montastruc

  2. Service de Pharmacologie Clinique, Centre Midi-Pyrénées de Pharmacovigilance, de Pharmacoépidémiologie et d’Informations sur le Médicament, Hôpitaux de Toulouse, 37 allées Jules-Guesde, BP 7202, 31073, Toulouse Cedex 7, France

    A. Sommet, A. Pathak, J. L. Montastruc & J. L. Montastruc

Authors
  1. T. B. Ngoundo Mbongue
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  2. A. Sommet
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  3. A. Pathak
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  4. J. L. Montastruc
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Montastruc.

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Mbongue, T.B.N., Sommet, A., Pathak, A. et al. “Medicamentation” of society, non-diseases and non-medications: a point of view from social pharmacology. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 61, 309–313 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-005-0925-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-005-0925-6

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