Trust the Pill: Why and How Benzodiazepines and Antidepressants are (Highly) Consumed According to Users

• In Event: Technicalities of Trust and Technologies of Sensing

Abstract

Benzodiazepines and antidepressants are two kinds of psychotropic medications that are usually prescribed at the same time and both of them have been in the center of many controversies regarding safety and ethical issues. Nevertheless, they are still the most consumed psychopharmaceuticals around the world.

Considering that Uruguay presents a high level of consumption of benzodiazepines and antidepressants, we carried out in-depth interviews with users of these medications, both from the public health care system and private health care services and also conducted ethnographic research in health care services.

The narratives collected account for a variety of ways in which benzodiazepines and antidepressants overcome the controversies to become part of the daily life of many Uruguayans from all social sectors. In some cases these psychotropic drugs acquire meanings such as that of a friend, which shows a high level of trust invested in the medicine regardless of the fear of side effects or dependency. This kind of trust is based on theories the consumers build around the medication and its effects, and may relate to the trust in science, in the doctor, in the empirical effect they experience and also in "hearsay". This leads in a number of cases to long-lasting relationships with the medication, which alarms the sanitary authorities and may increase unwanted harm to users. But who wants to let a friend go?

Authors

• Andrea Clara Bielli, Universidad de la República

• María Pilar Bacci, Universidad de la República

• Nancy Beatriz Calisto, Academic, University of the Republic (Uruguay)

• Lauren Predebon, Universidad de la República (Uruguay)

• Virginia Rodríguez Otero, UDELAR