Give me a Patch and I will Create a Market

• In Event: 41067 - Sociology of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology

Abstract

This research investigates the interplay between state power and pharmaceutical artifacts in the medicalization process. It traces the trajectory of LittlePatch—a clonidine transdermal patch used to treat tic disorders (TD)—to examine the pharmaceuticalization of TD in China, using ADHD as a comparative shadow case. The empirical puzzle focuses on the institutional disparities in professional associations between TD and ADHD, two often co-occurring medical diagnoses, during the Xi Jinping era (2012-). Specifically, it asks why a national-scale, hierarchical professional association has formed around TD—a less commonly diagnosed and publicly recognized condition—while professional associations for ADHD remain organized through a decentralized structure to date. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study draws on data from interviews with fifteen pediatricians, ethnographic observations at six medical conferences, and extensive digital archives, including conference recordings, key publications in medical journals and newspapers, healthcare and pharmaceutical policies, and sales statistics for TD and ADHD drugs in China. It argues that drugs backed by state capital play a pivotal role in assembling centralized professional associations during this historical period in China. By elucidating on how pharmaceutical artifacts with distinct capital backgrounds shape institutional disparities, this research advances our understanding of the multifaceted ways state power engages in medicalization.

Author

• Yanze Yu, Columbia University